Paris
French Finance Minister Hervé Gaymard resigned this week, after admitting that he leased a luxury apartment with taxpayer money. Gaymard, who is close to French President Jacques Chirac and was widely seen as a future prime minister, recently told the magazine Paris Match that he was a “humble” worker’s son with “no personal wealth.” But an investigation by the newspapers Le Canard Enchainé and Libération turned up multiple properties in Gaymard’s name, including a house in the Alps and another in Brittany. The most damaging revelation was that the fancy Paris apartment the Finance Ministry leased for him cost $18,500 a month. As finance minister, Gaymard had pledged to cut wasteful spending.
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