HERITAGE DECLARATION. The 2022 presidential election is fast approaching. Until then, all candidates for the supreme mandate will have to declare their assets. Until when can they do it? Why is it mandatory? We answer all your questions.
[Mis à jour le 4 mars à 12h43] The next presidential election is approaching. On Sundays April 10 and 24, the French will be able to vote to decide who will succeed Emmanuel Macron. Until then, the candidates for the supreme mandate will have to comply with a particular rule: the declaration of assets. Once the 500 elected sponsorships have been deposited, they must therefore comply with a new rule. All candidates must submit their declaration of assets to the Constitutional Council. The latter then forwards it to the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP).
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.
It is this Friday, March 4 that the candidates must submit their declaration of assets to the Constitutional Council at the latest. This filing comes a few days, exactly three, before the official list of presidential candidates is 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 from the Organization for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD), which insisted that proof be given of the exemplary nature of the highest public officials, which it considers essential 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.