Hollande vows to clean up French politics

President Francois Hollande insisted on Thursday he would go all the way to clean up French politics after ex-budget minister Jerome Cahuzac was charged in a tax fraud probe linked to his secret foreign bank account.

Published: 4 April 2013 20:32 CEST

Hollande vows to clean up French politics

Photo: Bertrand Langlois/AFP

"I will go all the way on these questions because I have nothing to fear from the strict application of the laws that exist and the application of the new laws," Hollande told journalists at a news conference in Rabat.

He said France was a great nation that would "not accept being humiliated."

"To be clear… it is not the government that is being challenged, it is one man who failed."

Hollande came under further pressure on Thursday when his one-time campaign treasurer admitted he was a partner in firms registered in the Cayman Islands tax haven.

The president insisted he was not aware that Jean-Jacques Augier, had joint ownership of two firms registered in the tax haven.

"I know nothing about these activities, and if they do not conform to French tax law, I will ask the administration" to make the "necessary corrections," the embattled president said at a news conference in Rabat.

"It is for the tax administration to do its work" on these "private activities," he added.

Critics have accused Hollande and his government of either trying to cover up the Cahuzac scandal or of mismanagement for having believed his ex-minister's denials.

The head of the main opposition right-wing UMP party, Jean-Francois Cope, said the government no longer had the credibility to rule.

"The only solution possible, the only one, is a major government reshuffle, including the prime minister," Cope said.

French newspapers said Hollande was facing his biggest political crisis since taking office, with popular daily Le Parisien saying the situation had become "untenable" for the government.

Opposition lawmakers have called for a parliamentary probe into the scandal and an opinion poll showed nearly two-thirds of respondents saying the government had handled the situation badly.

Hollande had promised a government of unimpeachable morals after his predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy was embroiled in a series of corruption and influence peddling investigations.

The tax scandal is further damaging the standing of Hollande, who is languishing in opinion polls less than a year into his five-year term.

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France has in recent weeks been shaken by a series of attacks on schoolchildren by their peers, in particularly the fatal beating earlier this month of Shemseddine, 15, outside Paris.

The far-right Rassemblement National (RN) party has accused Attal of not doing enough on security as the anti-immigration party soars ahead of the government coalition in polls for the June 9th election.

Speaking in Viry-Chatillon, the town where Shemseddine was killed, Attal condemned the “addiction of some of our adolescents to violence”, calling for “a real surge of authority… to curb violence”.

“There are twice as many adolescents involved in assault cases, four times more in drug trafficking, and seven times more in armed robberies than in the general population,” he said.

Measures will include expanding compulsory school attendance to all the days of the week from 8am to 6pm for children of collège age (11 to 15).

“In the day the place to be is at school, to work and to learn,” said Attal, who was also marking 100 days in office since being appointed in January by President Emmanuel Macron to turn round the government’s fortunes.

Parents needed to take more responsibility, said Attal, warning that particularly disruptive children would have sanctions marked on their final grades.

OPINION: No, France is not suffering an unprecedented wave of violence

Promoting an old-fashioned back-to-basics approach to school authority, he said “You break something – you repair it. You make a mess – you clear it up. And if you disobey – we teach you respect.”

Attal also floated the possibility of children in exceptional cases being denied the right to special treatment on account of their minority in legal cases.

Thus 16-year-olds could be forced to immediately appear in court after violations “like adults”, he said. In France, the age of majority is 18, in accordance with the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child.

Macron and Attal face an uphill struggle to reverse the tide ahead of the European elections. Current polls point to the risk of a major debacle that would overshadow the rest of the president’s second mandate up to 2027.

A poll this week by Ifop-Fiducial showed the RN on 32.5 percent with the government coalition way behind on 18 percent.