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发帖数: 29846 | 1 法国社会主义政府的预算部长辞职了，被控卷入在瑞士开设秘密银行账户丑闻
Hollande loses key ally as budget minister resigns
By FRANCE 24 the 20/03/2013 - 11:43
The resignation of France’s budget minister is a major blow to Franç
ois Hollande’s Socialist government, which is struggling to get the country
out of the red.
Jérôme Cahuzac’s resignation as the French budget minister made
headlines in France on Wednesday, shining a spotlight on an important but –
until now– little known member of President François Hollande’s inner
circle.
Cahuzac, 60, a former mayor and French MP with a long track record with the
Socialist Party, stepped down on Tuesday after judges opened an inquiry into
allegations he held a secret Swiss bank account.
The claims have given new ammunition to the conservative opposition UMP
party, which tabled a vote of no confidence in the government at the
National Assembly on Wednesday.
The motion, planned even before Cahuzac dramatically stepped down, had
virtually no chance of passing the Socialist-controlled chamber.
A victim of the pesky investigative press
While Cahuzac’s resignation caught the French off-guard, the allegations
have been festering since December.
The claim he stashed money away until 2010 was made by Mediapart, a
subscription-based news website known for its investigative reports.
Launched by a former Le Monde editor in 2008, Mediapart honed its craft with
stinging reports often targeting the right-wing government of Nicolas
Sarkozy.
Cahuzac has denied Mediapart’s allegations, telling reporters in December
that the final outcome of the affair would either ruin him or the news group.
The left-leaning daily Libération said Hollande had no choice but to accept
Cahuzac’s resignation, though maintaining that “there was no concrete
evidence” the former minister ever had an illegal Swiss bank account.
Le Parisien daily said Mediapart, for now, could boast of having the upper
hand in an article titled “Mediapart: 1 – Cahuzac: 0”.
“Until now he has been used to winning his fights. This time, Cahuzac has
chosen to abandon the political boxing ring to prove his innocence,” the
newspaper wrote.
Avoiding a ‘political catastrophe’
The French media have pointed out that the ministerial exit represents a
double blow for Hollande, who will likely face embarrassing questions over
the affair, and has lost a competent ally tasked with whipping the country’
s finances into shape.
The right-leaning Le Figaro, which routinely criticises Hollande, said the
president had lost a “major chess piece” with Cahuzac’s departure.
It showed sympathy for Cahuzac, who opposed the president’s failed bid to
tax France’s top earners at a 75% rate. Hollande has introduced a series of
tax hikes and cuts to deliver on his promise to balance France's budget by
the end of his term in 2017.
“Resigning is a personal tragedy if one is innocent. But staying on would
have been a political catastrophe, whether he is guilty or not,” Le Figaro
noted.
Bernard Cazeneuve, who was until Tuesday a junior minister in charge of
European affairs for Hollande, will replace Cahuzac at the Finance Ministry.
“One can’t replace Jérôme Cahuzac, only succeed him,” Cazaneuve
told RTL radio on Wednesday, admitting he lacked his predecessor’s “fine-
tuned knowledge” of the French budget. |
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