Google – AFP,
Angus MacKinnon (AFP), 19 March 2013
A photo
taken on March 7, 2013 shows French Junior Minister for the Budget
Jerome
Cahuzac (AFP/File, Jean-Pierre Muller)
|
PARIS —
French Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac resigned on Tuesday after prosecutors
announced a probe into a Swiss bank account he allegedly used to hide assets
from the tax authorities.
The
prosecutors' move to deepen a preliminary investigation that had been under way
since January made Cahuzac's position untenable as he was the government
minister in charge of combating tax evasion.
President
Francois Hollande, already languishing in the opinion polls less than a year
into his five-year term, announced that Minister for Europe Bernard Cazeneuve
would take over Cahuzac's brief as part of an enforced and embarrassing
reshuffle of his cabinet.
French President Francois Hollande (L)
listens to French
Budget Minister Jerome
Cahuzac on January 4, 2013 in Paris
(AFP/File, Miguel
Medina)
|
Cahuzac's
decision to step down came hours after prosecutors announced a full
investigation into claims by the Mediapart news website that he had an undeclared
account with Swiss bank UBS until 2010.
The
prosecutors said they believed Cahuzac was the man heard discussing the alleged
account in a taped conversation which the investigative site used to
substantiate its report.
Mediapart
has reported that Cahuzac held funds in the Swiss account until 2010 and had,
in breach of French law, failed to declare the account to the national tax
authorities.
According
to Mediapart, in the recorded conversation with one of his aides, Cahuzac
voices concern about the UBS account coming to light but claims he has
"dealt with the matter." Mediapart alleges that the contents of the
Swiss account were transferred to Singapore.
In a
statement, Cahuzac, 60, said he had resigned to ensure that his case did not
interfere with or overshadow the functioning of the government and reiterated
that he was "innocent of the slanderous allegations made against me."
Cahuzac has
repeatedly insisted that he has never had an offshore account and had denied
that his voice figures on the incriminating tape.
As the
minister charged with cracking down on tax fraud, Cahuzac was until Tuesday
evening a civil plaintiff in a judicial probe into French residents suspected
of stashing assets overseas to avoid tax.
The whole
issue of tax has been a difficult one for Hollande, who famously declared
during his presidential election campaign that "I don't like the
rich."
Plans for a
75-percent top rate of income tax and increases in wealth and inheritance taxes
have triggered an outcry from business figures and celebrities, most notably
Gerard Depardieu.
The
celebrated actor has moved his main residence to neighbouring Belgium and
accepted a Russian passport after lambasting Hollande's tax policies.
A business
group known as 'the pigeons' last year succeeded in forcing the Socialist
administration to ditch a proposed hike in capital gains taxes.
A
successful online campaign against the measure claimed it would discourage
start-ups and lead to more entrepreneurs quitting the country.
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