The wealthiest member of France's Socialist government, French people learned Monday, is Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius, who inherited a $7.8 million fortune from his family's trade in art and antiques. But Michele Delaunay, minister for the aged, also disclosed a comfortable stash: $7 million, mostly in inherited real estate along the Atlantic coast.
Ministers rich and poor — all 38 members of President Francois Hollande's government — were required to declare their assets in public Monday for the first time. The disclosures marked a historic departure for French politics, which has a long, notorious tradition of under-the-table campaign financing and polite silence on personal wealth often acquired on modest government salaries.
"This is a revolution for France," said Maurice Szafran, editor of the weekly magazine Marianne.