FRANCE: France's minister of the economy and finance resigned yesterday, presenting himself as a victim and as a loyal servant of the state. Lara Marlow reports from Paris
Before going on television last night, Mr Hervé Gaymard issued an afternoon statement saying he was "aware of having been tactless, and of committing a serious error of evaluation concerning the conditions of my official housing".
All France is now familiar with those conditions: a three-year lease, at taxpayers' expense, for a €14,000 per month 600 m2 (6,500 sq ft) apartment.
Despite the fact that he "ended this situation without delay", Mr Gaymard complained: "My family has for several days been subjected to real harassment."
Yet his first concern was not to taint the high office to which the Republic had called him, Mr Gaymard concluded. He was still motivated by "a vision of politics . . . in the service of my country".
The Prime Minister, Mr Jean-Pierre Raffarin, came to office promising to listen to "grass-roots France". The practice of cabinet ministers renting out their own apartments while they live lavishly at taxpayers' expense is certain to come under scrutiny.
President Jacques Chirac's advisers implied that the Gaymard family's taste for vast accommodation in central Paris came from Clara, the spouse, who is also a high-ranking civil servant. Residents of Bourg-Saint-Maurice, the alpine town where Mr Gaymard's sisters run the Gaymard Chaussures shop and his brother the Gaymard Sport shop, told Libération newspaper that they also blamed Mrs Gaymard.
Mr Chirac reportedly fears the scandal could cost several percentage points in the referendum on the European constitutional treaty, expected in May. Popular discontent runs deep in the face of high unemployment, low economic growth and the partial roll-back of the 35-hour working-week.
Although he coddled the Gaymards, Mr Chirac did not telephone his protégé when he found himself under fire. As with scandals involving the former prime minister Mr Alain Juppé and the former mayor of Paris Mr Jean Tiberi, the French President apparently decided there was no point defending the Gaymards once they became a political liability.
Mr Nicolas Sarkozy, the head of the centre-right UMP party, who preceded Mr Gaymard at the finance ministry, was delighted by the fall of the man whom Mr Chirac was grooming to challenge him. "It is a responsible, worthy, respectable and honest decision," Mr Sarkozy said of the resignation.
The first question on French television last night was expected to concern Mr Gaymard's property holdings. Before his resignation, he told Paris Match he would have owned an apartment if he'd been from a rich family. Not only does he own a large flat in central Paris that is currently rented by a family with eight children (like the Gaymards), it emerged yesterday that the former minister also owns houses in Savoie and Brittany, as well as two apartments and offices in the French Alps.
Mr Gaymard presented himself as someone who "always lived humbly", adding: "I don't have any dough." Yet the finance ministry confirmed that Mr and Mrs Gaymard are required to pay the impôt sur la fortune (ISF), charged on wealth exceeding €720,000.
Mr Chirac is now searching for his ninth finance minister in 10 years. His first choice would be Mr Thierry Breton, the chairman of France Télécom, but Mr Breton is unlikely to renounce his €900,000 salary for a minister's pay of €140,000.
The winner of the Gaymard saga is the satirical weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, which broke the story. Founded in 1916, the motto of the Canard is: "Freedom of the press only wears out if you don't use it."
Historic scoops have included the desertion of soldiers during the first World War and Mr Valéry Giscard d'Estaing's acceptance of diamonds from Emperor Bokassa.