FRANCE: Hervé and Clara Gaymard were one of the most promising couples in French politics, until the scandal of their lavish lodgings was revealed by the satirical Canard Enchaîné newspaper. The French Minister for the Economy and Finance yesterday resisted calls for his resignation.
"I am not going to allow myself to be pinned down like a butterfly, when I'm clean as a new penny, and we work like crazy for the Republic," Mr Gaymard told Le Figaro newspaper. The disgraced Minister claimed he had the total support of Matignon and the Élysée.
But an aide to Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin told Reuters that Mr Gaymard "has been given until the end of the week to explain himself ... very clearly".
Mr Gaymard, a shoemaker's son from the French Alps, and his wife Clara, the daughter of the geneticist and anti-abortion activist Jérôme Lejeune, met at the École Nationale d'Administration 20 years ago. President Jacques Chirac, a friend of the late Prof Lejeune, took them under his wing.
Mr Gaymard (44) became Finance Minister in December, with a mission to outshine Nicolas Sarkozy, the would-be president of France who resigned so he could take over Mr Chirac's UMP party.
Mr Gaymard's favourite sayings - that France "cannot live beyond its means" and that the French "must shake off their addiction to public spending" - came back to haunt him when it emerged that he and his wife rented a 600m2 (6,500 sq ft) apartment near the Champs-Élysées for €14,000 per month, at taxpayers' expense.
At the head of the Agence française pour les investissements internationaux, Ms Gaymard holds the rank of ambassador. The French press mocked the Gaymards' clean-cut looks, devout Catholicism and eight children, but the First Lady cherished them as her darlings. Mr Chirac saw Hervé Gaymard as the anti-Sarkozy; discreet and 100 per cent loyal.
Many suspect that Mr Sarkozy was the source of the leaks. Alluding to the scandal, the president of the UMP yesterday told reporters: "I'm sure the French people, confronted with their day-to-day difficulties, will ask themselves questions and judge what is going on with a certain severity."
Mr Gaymard was considered a prime ministerial and even presidential hopeful; no longer. After Mr Raffarin ordered the Gaymards to move out of their vast duplex apartment immediately, Mr Gaymard claimed regulations had been "scrupulously respected". The rules say that official apartments must be "in conformity ... with the simplicity that befits representatives of the State".
Le Parisien reported yesterday that the Gaymards turned one of the duplex's two kitchens into a gym. The Canard Enchâiné says they spent €150,000 of government money to build a staircase between the two apartments, replace wall-to-wall carpet with parquet and buy appliances. Mr Gaymard claims the cost was "only" €31,000, which he promises to repay.
Mr Gaymard claims he works 120 hours every week, was too busy to flat-hunt and never asked what the rent was. But his worst gaffe was telling Paris Match, "I have always lived humbly. I don't have money. Obviously, if I hadn't been the son of a shoemaker and shopkeeper, if I'd been from a rich family, I wouldn't have had any housing problems. I'd own my own apartment, and this whole affair would not have happened."
It turns out that Mr Gaymard does own his own apartment - 200m2 on the Boulevard Saint-Michel, which he rents to a friend for €2,300 monthly.