The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life unveils this Thursday, December 1st the encrypted heritage of the ministers of the French government.
This Thursday, December 1, the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) is putting online on its website asset declarations of all members of the French government. This body, in place since 2013 following the Cahauzac affair, works independently to ensure that the tax situation of ministers, parliamentarians and collaborators does not contravene the necessary probity. The HATVP carries out checks on what has been declared by the ministers, on the legal elements concerning them, in order to take the measure of potential problematic links of interest within the framework of their function.
The HATVP has already made public the declarations of assets of most current ministers – since Emmanuel Macron has chosen to keep a good part of his team for his second term -, but these have been updated. Newcomers, on the other hand, had to confront this exercise, with often dreaded consequences. The Minister Delegate for Territorial Communities, Caroline Cayeux, resigned on Monday, November 28 because of the control of the HATVP on her declaration of assets. If she spoke of a “disagreement”, it is now clear that her departure from the government was precipitated by Elisabeth Borne and Emmanuel Macron in order to spare the government a scandalous soap opera. The HATVP will not publish its declaration of assets.
The HATVP first ruled that Caroline Cayeux’s heritage had been “undervalued”. Enough for a resignation? It must be said that the immense fortune of the now ex-minister was enough to embarrass a government that had been engaged for several weeks in reforms to reduce social spending: according to Courrier Picard information, the former minister would be a multi-millionaire, with very prestigious assets, which classify her de facto in the category of the ultra-rich French. According to the newspaper, Caroline Cayeux would be the owner of a Haussmannian building of 6 floors, of approximately 500 m2, near the Eiffel Tower, the value of which would be beyond 12 million euros. It is this property that would have been underestimated in the minister’s declaration of assets. She also owns a large residence in Dinard. She also owns “forests in Sologne” where “she works on her networks and her relations by organizing hunting parties there”, indicates the Courrier Picard. The former mayor of Beauvais is also the daughter of Pierre Fournier, who was at the head of the eponymous pharmaceutical group, bought recently for 1.3 billion euros.