HERITAGE DECLARATION. The official list of candidates for the 2022 presidential election was released on Monday. The twelve candidates for the supreme term of office filed their declaration of assets on March 4. Why is it mandatory? What goods must they declare? We answer all your questions.
[Mis à jour le 7 mars à 16h07] While the presidential election will take place on Sundays April 10 and 24, the candidates are obliged to follow a particular rule: the declaration of assets. Once the filing of the 500 elected sponsorships made with the Constitutional Council, they must file their declaration of assets. Then, the institution sends it to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP). Finally, a few weeks before the first round of the presidential election, the HATVP will publish the declarations of assets of the twelve contenders for the presidency of the Republic. A publication accessible to everyone online.
This measure is particularly restrictive since the declaration of assets is then made public, for the sake of transparency, a fortnight before the first round of the presidential election. Voters will therefore have access to several pieces of information, such as buildings, bank accounts, savings books… On the other hand, other data will be protected and will not be disclosed to the general public, namely: personal address of the candidate, the names of his family members, and his account numbers.
The candidates had to submit their declaration of assets to the Constitutional Council before March 4th. This filing came a few days before the official list of presidential candidates was released on Monday March 7, 2022. Emmanuel Macron had to go through a slightly different exercise. In accordance with the law in force, the Head of State had to submit his declaration of assets six months at the earliest and five months at the latest before the expiry of his mandate. The objective of this measurement is to study the evolution of the President of the Republic during the exercise of his function.
This declaration of assets is particularly regulated. Applicants must declare the following:
– built and unbuilt buildings;
– transferable securities;
– life insurance;
– current or savings bank accounts, passbooks and other savings products;
– miscellaneous movable property with a unit value of more than €10,000;
– motorized land vehicles, boats and aircraft;
– goodwill or clientele and charges and offices;
– movable and immovable property and accounts held abroad;
– other goods;
– the passive.
In 2017, for the first time, the asset declaration of all presidential candidates was published. This decision was taken following a recommendation by the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which insisted that proof be given of the exemplary nature of the highest public officials, essential in its view to the proper functioning of a consistent integrity system. If the declaration of assets of candidates has been published since 2017, then it has existed since 1988. But until this rule change, only the declaration of the president in place was published.