Emmanuel Macron faces taxing times

Paris: French President Emmanuel Macron has delayed the announcement of his first cabinet by 24 hours until Wednesday, with his office saying extra checks had to be made on the tax affairs of potential ministers.

Although the extra background checks on ministers’ “tax status” and possible conflicts of interests were the reasons given for the delay, it is also possible 39-year-old Macron needs more time to complete a delicate balancing act.

Macron, a centrist, has promised to have faces from the left and right as well as political newcomers.

On Monday, his first day in office, he named centre-right MP Edouard Philippe as Prime Minister and travelled to Berlin for talks with German Chancellor Angela Merkel on reforming the European Union.

On Tuesday, he and Philippe had been expected to finalise and announce a government which Macron says will bridge France’s entrenched left-right divide and breathe new life into the country’s jaded political landscape.

But Macron’s office said the government line-up would not be unveiled until 3 pm on Wednesday.

A statement said the President was going above and beyond what is required by law in scrutinising his ministers’ financial affairs. The delay was to allow checks to be made on their tax status “whereas the law stipulates that this check only needs to be done after they are named”, the presidency said.

Macron has said half his ministers will be women and that some will be high achievers in business, academia, the civil service or the NGO world.

Some could be replaced after next month’s parliamentary election, depending on how many seats Macron’s Republique En Marche (REM) party wins.

So far his appointments have all been men under 50, most of them graduates like him of France’s elite ENA college for senior public servants, which has turned out generations of French politicians.

Among people tipped for jobs are conservative ex-agriculture minister Bruno Le Maire, centrist MEP Sylvie Goulard, Lyon’s Socialist Mayor Gerard Collomb and the veteran popular outgoing Defence Minister Jean-Yves Le Drian. Le Drian is expected to be the only survivor from Francois Hollande’s little-loved Socialist government.