HERITAGE DECLARATION. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen are the two candidates running in the second round of the 2022 presidential election. Which has the biggest heritage, who is the richest? Real estate, cars, bank accounts… We have dissected their asset declarations for you.
Sunday, April 24 takes place the second round of the presidential election: the French elect on this day their future president of the Republic. Before the first round on Sunday April 10, each candidate for the presidential election had to fill in sections and submit their certified declaration of assets on honor to the Constitutional Council. It must show the transparency of each candidate and show potential conflicts of interest. This applies to the two finalists, Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, whose wealth we now know.
Since Tuesday, March 8, 2022, the declarations of assets and income of the candidates for the 2022 presidential election are available and have been published by the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), on the institution’s website. Now that the first round is over, let’s focus on the fortunes of the two candidates vying for this second round.
The declaration of assets of presidential candidates is thus made public one month before the first round of the presidential election. In this way, voters can have access to several pieces of information, such as buildings, bank accounts, savings books… On the other hand, other data is protected and will not be disclosed to the general public, namely: the applicant’s home address, names of family members, and account numbers. From the presidential income of Emmanuel Macron to the three houses of Marine Le Pen, Linternaute sifted through the documents and took out his calculator…
When must applicants declare their assets?
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.
The declaration of assets of candidates for the presidential election 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.
What is the composition of the finalist’s assets? The candidate of the Rassemblement National declares real estate equivalent to 1.29 million euros. There are three houses, a first of 633 m² in Hauts-de-Seine, a second of 120 m² in Morbihan and a last in Yvelines. For each, it has a share in a real estate civil society (12.5% for the first, 28.5% for the second and 25% for the third). And what is Marine Le Pen’s income? In her statement, she indicates that she has received 60,000 euros annually since 2018 for her position as president of the National Rally. An amount that more than tripled between 2017 and 2018 since for her first year as president, she only received 18,000 euros. Marine Le Pen was also paid as a deputy for Pas-de-Calais to the tune of 70,773 euros between 2017 and 2021. In addition, as a departmental councilor, she has received 20,764 euros per year since 2021, and this until 2027
What is the heritage of the president candidate for re-election made up of? Emmanuel Macron has nearly 23,000 euros placed in a specific fund for SMEs and just under 70,000 euros distributed in securities accounts and share savings plans at Rothschild and Crédit Mutuel. He also has life insurance of 113,000 euros and accumulates 470,000 euros in several bank accounts. A striking detail: the Head of State has no real estate, but must still repay 122,000 euros linked to a loan taken out to finance work in the Touquet residence of his wife Brigitte Macron. A set that sets its assets around 550,000 euros. And what income does he have? Emmanuel Macron has received since 2017 a little more than 16,000 euros monthly linked to his function as President of the Republic.
When the asset declarations of the 12 candidates were made public on March 8, 2022, a ranking was made by most of the media to assess their level of wealth in descending order. The candidate LR Valérie Pécresse had come largely in the lead, breaking away from the pack with 9,700,000 euros of declared assets, a figure which had provoked many reactions. At the very bottom of the ranking, we found the anti-capitalist Philippe Poutou, with 122,000 euros declared, testifying to a significant gap between the 12 aspirants to the supreme title. But what about the difference between the two qualified candidates in the second round of the election? In 5th position, Marine Le Pen is the last millionaire in the ranking. With 1,300,000 euros, she was far behind the 4th, the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon who had 4,200,000 euros in assets. But it is also far ahead of Emmanuel Macron, who declared more than half as much. With a total of 550,000 euros in assets, he was 8th out of 12, appearing behind the socialist Anne Hidalgo (at 780,000 euros).
The heritage of Marine Le Pen would therefore be, according to this declaration, much higher than that of Emmanuel Macron. This is explained in particular by the difference between their respective monthly incomes, Marine Le Pen pocketing 60,000 euros annually since 2018 for her position as president of the National Rally, while Emmanuel Macron indicates that he has only received around 16,000 euros monthly since 2017 for his function as President of the Republic. The gap is also widening in terms of real estate since the LREM candidate would not have any (do not forget, however, the loan of 122,000 taken out to finance the work of Brigitte Macron’s residence in Le Touquet), while that Marine Le Pen has three properties, estimated at 1.29 million euros in total.