Justice minister unveils law to clean-up politics

Justice Minister François Bayrou has outlined proposals to clean up French politics, following an election pledge by new President Emmanuel Macron.

Just over a week before the first round of parliamentary elections, Mr Bayrou said the 'moralisation law' will be put to parliament in the form of two bills within a few weeks.

He said a series of recent political scandals, among them several legal cases faced by former president Nicolas Sarkozy, accusations that centre-right presidential candidate François Fillon provided fake jobs for his family and the European parliament finding that far-right candidate Marine Le Pen provided fake jobs for party activists "shattered and fractured the confidence our citizens should have in their representatives".

But the announcement was overshadowed by an investigation into Mr Macron has been under growing pressure to sack Richard Ferrand, the newly appointed minister of territorial cohesion and secretary general of Macron’s La Republique en Marche party, after prosecutors in Brest announced they were launching a preliminary investigation into allegations of favouritism.

Mr Bayrou refused to comment on the scandal, saying the law prevented him from discussing individual cases.

The main points of the law include:

• MPs will be banned from employing close family members, such as parents, siblings, spouses or children. If an MP employs the close family member of another politician, this must be noted in the declaration of interests

• MPs, senators and local authority members cannot stand for re-election to the same position more than once, except in small local councils;

• Ministers will be banned from having seats on local authorities;

• Any person convicted of a crime or offence concerning their honesty will be banned from public office for 10 years;

• Political parties will not be allowed to accept funding from "personnes morales" - groups such as businesses - apart from European banks;

• A 'bank of democracy' will provide loans to political parties for campaigns. Parties that receive public funding must have their accounts audited;

• Former presidents will no longer sit on the Conseil d'Etat, France's highest court which judges the validity of laws passed by parliament;

• The Court of Justice of the Republic, a body made up largely of MPs which judges cases against ministers, is to be abolished. In future, cases involving ministers will go to the Paris appeal court.