A DARK mood of distrust has taken hold in France. It set in after Jérôme Cahuzac, the former budget minister in charge of tax, confessed that he had lied about a secret foreign bank account he had held for 20 years. He was fired and faces charges. Now President François Hollande’s effort to clean up politics by requiring elected officials to disclose their wealth has prompted mayhem and opposition claims of a witch-hunt against the rich.

Under pressure to do more, Mr Hollande called on April 10th for the “eradication” of tax havens in Europe and elsewhere. He said all French banks would have to publish a list of their foreign subsidiaries. And he promised a new transparency law to require all French deputies to declare their assets and abide by new conflict-of-interest rules.

Jean-Marc Ayrault, his prime minister, has told ministers to declare their assets by April 15th. France, along with Slovenia, requires the least transparency in Europe from elected officials, says Daniel Lebègue, head of the French branch of Transparency International. Until now, ministers have had to publish a minimalist “declaration of interests”. Now the actual value of all their wealth must be revealed, making the rules stricter than in Britain.

Although some ministers decided to publish their wealth before the deadline, the new system is prompting unease because of a lingering French taboo over wealth. Rules were called for, said Christian Noyer, governor of the Bank of France, but putting all assets in the public eye was “to go from necessary moral rigour to unhealthy curiosity”. Some opposition deputies even termed the rules grotesque and voyeuristic. As Libération, a left-wing newspaper, put it: deputies could end up “being judged on their wealth rather than their political action.”

Rumours and leaks are rife. Mediapart, the investigative website that unveiled the Cahuzac affair, alleged that he had hidden far more than the €600,000 he has confessed to. Laurent Fabius, the foreign minister, strongly denied a Libération claim that he too had a Swiss bank account. Le Point, a magazine, also claimed that Mr Hollande would be called as a witness in an old corruption case.

Having campaigned on a promise of an “exemplary” government, Mr Hollande hopes to blame the Cahuzac affair on the “moral fault” of one man. But this does not seem to wash with voters. Polls after the scandal found 77% judging all French politicians corrupt, including 63% of those who voted for Mr Hollande; the president’s popularity rating sank to a new record low of 26%. Pierre Moscovici, the finance minister, had to fend off accusations in parliament that he had not pushed hard enough to find out about Mr Cahuzac’s Swiss account. Even the left-leaning media have been merciless about Mr Hollande. “In French eyes, either he was naive or incompetent, or he more or less covered up the lie,” said an editorial in Le Monde.

With his new transparency drive, Mr Hollande hopes to avoid a government reshuffle prompted by panic. But it will be hard to shift the mood. Jean-Marie Rouart, a writer, argued in Paris-Match magazine that something about Mr Hollande does not work as president: “he prompts neither hatred, nor admiration, nor any excessive or passionate feeling…it is as if he is transparent.” Less than a year since his election, there is a troubling sense of fin de règne.