The French government has unveiled its new “moralisation law” pledged by Emmanuel Macron to clean up French politics following a series of fraud scandals.

The justice minister, François Bayrou, said the legislation aimed to bury the idea there was one law for “ordinary citizens” and another for politicians.

“For years we have seen practices develop that have damaged people’s confidence in their elected representatives and provoked a profound exasperation among the French,” Bayrou told a press conference.

Bayrou said the bill was not intended to “solve personal problems of morality” but eliminate conflicts of interest. “Morality is a personal question. Institutions are not set up to make men virtuous but knowing that not all are, they are set up to avoid human weaknesses contaminating the public body.”

Members of parliament, local representatives and senior civil servants will be banned from employing members of their family and required to make a declaration of personal interest. Instead of being given a sum of money for expenses without having to justify expenditure, they would need to produce receipts to be reimbursed for what they had spent.

Any person convicted of a crime or offence concerning their honesty would be banned from public office for 10 years.

Macron put financial and ethical probity in public life at the heart of his presidential campaign after scandals hit his rivals, the conservative candidate François Fillon and the far-right Front National leader Marine Le Pen.

The new president was under growing pressure on Thursday to ditch a newly appointed minister and key adviser after French prosecutors announced they were launching a preliminary investigation into allegations of favouritism.



Richard Ferrand, the minister of territorial cohesion and secretary general of Macron’s La Republique en Marche (Republic on the Move) party, has dismissed calls to resign, insisting he has done nothing wrong.

The affair is an embarrassment to Macron, and comes just one week before the first round of vital parliamentary elections.

Thursday’s announcement of the inquiry came a week after the prosecutor’s office in Brest, Brittany, declared there was no evidence Ferrand had broken any law and ruled out an investigation.

In a statement on Thursday, Brest prosecutor Eric Mathais explained he had changed his mind after more allegations appeared in the press. “The aim of this inquiry is to gather all material for a complete analysis of the facts and to look into whether these may constitute a criminal offence or not,” he wrote.

The satirical newspaper Le Canard enchaîné reported that Ferrand had rented office space from his partner for a health insurance fund he managed six years ago. She was then able to secure a business loan on the basis of the rental income and the renovations that were carried out by the health fund and had increased the property’s value, the Canard alleged.



No public money was involved and Ferrand insisted there was nothing illegal or unethical in the deal. Ferrand described the row as a “pseudo-scandal”.

A Harris Interactive poll on Wednesday suggested 70% of French people want Ferrand to resign.

Macron has ordered his government to show unity in the run-up to vital legislative elections, the first round of which will take place on Sunday. The president needs a clear majority in the Assemblée Nationale to push through his reform programme.



The prime minister, Édouard Philippe, has defended Ferrand, saying he would stay in his post. “A minister who is formally charged must resign, there is no ambiguity there,” he added.

The new European affairs minister, Marielle de Sarnez, is also under preliminary investigation after the FN claimed there were irregularities in her employment of European Union parliamentary assistants. De Sarnez has said she is suing her accusers for defamation.



Government spokesman Christophe Castaner said the Ferrand affair came at a “bad time”, but there was no question of the minister resigning. “One thing is certain; there is nothing illegal here; there is nothing that is not correct morally,” Castaner told Europe 1 radio.