An investigation by Mediapart has revealed that a fifth of all French MPs – 115 out of 577 – have employed a member of their family as part of their parliamentary team in 2014, either on permanent or temporary contracts. The investigation, which follows the recent publication of MPs' declarations of interest and the names of their staff, shows that eight MPs even employ two members of their family.
Most of the MPs contacted by Mediapart were unabashed about having family members on the payroll, though some were rather more circumspect. “Is this a witch hunt or what?” asked Franck Gilard, a member of the right-wing opposition UMP party, when questioned about the three-month temporary contract given to his son. “Thanks to all this transparency, everyone's having a go at us!” Even the president of the National Assembly, the socialist Claude Bartolone, has employed his wife Véronique Ragusa since 2012, though as he has pointed out “I didn't hire my wife, I married my co-worker!”
Until now the identity of parliamentary assistants, the staff employed by MPs and senators using public money, was a jealously-guarded secret. Their names only appeared publicly for the first time on July 24th when they were put online by the organisation in charge of overseeing openness in public life, the Haute autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique (HATVP), based on the “declarations of interest” made by MPs in January 2014.
The majority of MPs who employ relatives do not mention the family link in their declarations, but by cross-referencing the newly-published information with details already gleaned over several weeks in the corridors of the National Assembly, Mediapart has been able to compile a relatively complete list of MPs who have hired relatives. This list shows that, though since 2009 the European Parliament has prohibited the hiring of relatives to avoid any risk of having fictitious jobs or jobs of convenience – the ban applies to partners, parents, children, brothers and sisters – at least a fifth of all MPs at the National Assembly indulge in this practice.
At the Assembly the only rule aimed at stamping out such abuses relates to payment; for a relative, monthly pay has a ceiling of 4,750 euros gross. Otherwise an MP is free to choose his or her team as they see fit and “distribute” the 9,504 euros a month they are allocated for paying staff. Thus there has been no parliamentary scrutiny of the jobs given by former UMP leader Jean-François Copé and former minister Bruno Le Maire to their wives, Nadia Copé and Pauline Le Maire. No questions have been raised, either, about what added value artist Pauline Le Maire - whose work contract with her husband was ended in September 2013 – and child psychologist Nadia Cope have brought to their work as parliamentary assistants.
Some MPs point out, with justification, that dozens of spouses and children have carried out very good work for parliamentarians, both at the Assembly in Paris and in their constituencies. Some of their arguments are indeed valid, like the need to be able to recruit someone they trust or to enable them to see their partner – the heavy demands of politics take their toll on family life. “It's not about favouring your family,” insists socialist MP Michel Lesage, whose son is on a short-term contract from June to September. “But there's no reason either to penalise [family members] when they are able to do the job.” That said, the MP says he does not envisage “employing someone from [his] family on a permanent basis”.
Another socialist MP, Linda Gourjade, who has just taken on her daughter, a graduate of Sciences Po Toulouse – a prestigious university specialising in political sciences – notes: “There can be fictitious jobs where there are no family ties. I'm not sure [being a family member] is an aggravating factor.” MP Franck Gilard says: “If we're banned from doing it, then it should be banned for private companies!”
When it is pointed out that the money paid to parliamentary workers is public cash, a number of MPs resort to a curious argument. “I don't use all the money to which I'm entitled,” says the UMP's Jean-Pierre Door, who has just taken on his wife. “I use 6,500 euros [a month] out of the 9,500 euros that the Assembly puts at our disposal to pay our staff!” Out of the MPs contacted by Mediapart, only UMP member Étienne Blanc says he is “rather in favour of a ban, as at the European Parliament”.
Proper evaluation of the current situation requires all MPs to fill in their declarations appropriately. However, this is not always done. For example, the UMP's Jean-Pierre Mignon, who according to Mediapart's information has employed his wife on his staff in 2014, simply wrote “Nil” in the space provided for MPs to declare their co-workers. At the time this article was published Mignon had not responded to Mediapart's calls. In fact, as the official declaration forms were filled in by MPs in January 2014, they do not mention the many “summer jobs” lasting one, two or three months that have recently been given to family members. For example the socialist MP Patrick Lemasle, who in March 2014 hired one daughter then hired another daughter on a short-term contract for June and July, did not think to update his declaration.
Extra work for non-family workers
The practice of hiring children on seasonal contacts is clearly a trend. The MP Étienne Blanc has just taken on his daughter, a student of public law, for “summer work experience for four or five weeks”. The UMP's Yves Censi and the socialist Béatrice Santais have done the same with their sons. Another Socialist Party MP, Hugues Fourage, has hired his son for June and July, having already taken him on for a month last summer. Philippe Vigier, an MP for the centrist party the UDI, has just recruited his daughter for two months “after [she spent] two years in an embassy and just before she takes up her new job [editor's note, in the private sector] after the summer break”.
Enlargement : Illustration 3
One MP, Francis Vercamer, did declare his daughter as a member of staff in January, but did not mention his wife's role. “I take on [my wife] from time to time on short-term contracts, for around two months a year,” explains the UDI member. “In general it's during the holidays; in November it's to prepare [the sending out of traditional] New Year wishes and in June to carry out an assessment of the year.” However, socialist MP Olivier Véran did remember to update his declaration of interest in mid-July, to point out that the contract hiring his sister had been terminated.
When it comes to noting their family member's qualifications, some MPs go into more detail than others. For example, socialist MP Estelle Grelier highlights the value of the “DESS [editor's note, a Diplôme d'Etudes Supérieures Specialisées, broadly equivalent to a master's degree] and degree from Sciences Po Grenoble” university of her “bilingual” cousin, who was on a permanent contract until March 2014. The UDI MP Meyer Habib went as far as to note the good performance of his son in the baccalauréat high school exam to explain why he was given a part-time temporary contract.
Meanwhile the UMP's Claudine Schmid, who was elected by French citizens living in Switzerland and Liechtenstein, emphasises the key asset of her son who runs the constituency office in Switzerland: “He speaks the Swiss-German dialect and you don't find that in France!”. This is of course true, though observers could point out that plenty of people in Switzerland speak it. In any case, many MPs are quick to note that some of the tasks carried out by support staff do not require any particular expertise.
Mediapart's investigation has also shown that some 'family staff' are also very active in work unconnected with the National Assembly. Socialist MP Florent Boudié, for example, has taken on his wife Émilie Coutanceau as a full-time member of his team, even though she is already a regional councillor in Aquitaine in south-west France, and also held two other elected positions locally until March 2014.
Another example is socialist MP Michèle Fournier-Armand, whose son has a full-time job as “contributions manager” at the farmers' social insurance fund the Mutualité Sociale Agricole (MSA). The MP points out that her son only works for her “seven hours a week”. Meanwhile the daughters of UMP member Jean-François Mancel and socialist Michel Françaix who are, respectively, an actress and a contract worker in the entertainment and arts world, each appear to have found a supplementary job working at the National Assembly for their father. And the partner of UMP member Laure de La Raudière works both as the owner of a forest and as the MP's employee for part of the week.
Declaring the other professional activities of MPs' staff means that any potential conflicts of interest in the future can be highlighted. In this respect it is perhaps unfortunate that socialist MP Dominique Orliac, who takes an interest in healthcare and medicines policies, did not mention the fact that her son, who was on a full-time contract until last winter, is a pharmacist who works on short-term replacement contracts. Nor did she mention in her January declaration that her daughter is a doctor; indeed, she did not figure on the list of her employees at all.
Overall, what is perhaps most striking about the results of the investigation is the sheer number of MPs who employ members of their families. With the jobless total in France continuing to rise each quarter, French voters are unlikely to look upon the hiring of family members by their elected representatives with indifference. In the corridors of the National Assembly itself, informed observers also point out that the “lack of qualifications” and “lack of time spent working” of some family staff have a knock-on effect on their colleagues, who have to reduplicate work and sometimes put up with a reduced salary. In a press release last week the branch of the Force Ouvrière trade union that represents parliamentary workers said there was an urgent need to create a formal status for such employees, who currently have no salary grades or collective agreement covering their working conditions.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter