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Economy

French Government Heavyweight Resigns Over Swiss Bank Account Scandal, Triggers Confidence Vote

LIBERATION, LE PARISIEN, LES ECHOS ( France)

Worldcrunch

PARIS - French President Francois Hollande's government faces its first confidence vote Wednesday over its handling of the country’s finances as a government heavyweight resigns over allegations of tax fraud.

The confidence vote was called by the opposition Union for a Popular Movement party (UMP). While it is unlikely to prevail because of Hollande’s majority in the National Assembly, it comes amid falling approval ratings for the French President.

Budget Minister Jerome Cahuzac resigned on Tuesday night, after an investigation was launched into an alleged undeclared Swiss bank account.

Cahuzac, 60, handed in his resignation just three hours after an announcement that he would be investigated on charges of tax fraud and money laundering, Libération reports.

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Jerome Cahuzac - Photo: Cyclotron

According to the French daily newspaper Les Echos, the Budget Minister was a "key element" in Hollande’s government, and "one of its most trusted ministers."

Although he has denied any wrongdoing, Cahuzac asked to be removed from his post "out of respect" for the government and the judicial process , he is quoted as saying by Le Parisien.

Hollande commented on Cahuzac’s resignation: “I hail the decision that he took to hand in his resignation as a member of the government to better defend his honor.”

Last December, the French investigative news website Mediapart said it had a recording of a phone conversation in which the minister allegedly expressed concern about an account in the Swiss bank UBS, which was reportedly used to siphon funds to Singapore – accusations Cahuzac has always denied.

It is the first ministerial resignation French President Francois Hollande has received since taking office last May. Cahuzac will be replaced by Bernard Cazeneuve, 49, the current Minister for European Affairs.

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Future

Beyond Musk: Is There A Right-Wing Shift Of Tech Spreading Worldwide?

The culture of Silicon Valley was once associated with social liberalism and tolerance. However, the tech community worldwide, from moguls such as Elon Musk or Peter Thiel, to IT professionals in Poland, and self-described OSINT users in India, is showing signs of a noted right-wing shift.

Photo of a person typing on a laptop with lines of code on the screen

Is the rightward direction of tech accelerating?

Katarzyna Skiba*

PARIS — For decades, the tech world acquired a reputation for open-mindedness and politically progressive values. Indeed, the origins of Silicon Valley are intimately linked to the 1960s counter-culture scene just a few miles up the road in San Francisco.

With its central role in today's economy, and arrival in mainstream culture, those would-be hippie days were bound to fade. Yet there has been a notable shift to more conservative — and even far-right — voices from the tech community that first began during the presidency of Donald Trump. Now the rightward direction of tech appears to be accelerating, with the emergence over the past year of Elon Musk as a hero of the populist far-right as only the most visible example.

But it's not just an American thing: a look around the world finds that the growing connections between tech and the far right goes well beyond the U.S., with examples showing up from Poland to India to Argentina.

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