French assembly chief and Macron ally probed over property deals

The president of the French National Assembly, who is a close ally of President Emmanuel Macron, has been charged over a property deal from which he is suspected of having illegally profited, prosecutors said Thursday.

The allegations facing Richard Ferrand led him to step down from Macron's government in 2017, causing blushes for the president who swept to power on a pledge to rejuvenate France's corruption-plagued political class.

Prosecutors later dropped those charges, paving the way for Ferrand, a former leader of Macron's party, to make a comeback.

But an anti-corruption organisation later filed another complaint against Ferrand, forcing the case, which concerns a property deal involving a public health fund that Ferrand once headed, to be re-opened.

The three investigating magistrates leading the investigation said in the early hours of Thursday they had decided to charge Ferrand with conflict of interest.

Reacting to the announcement Macron said Thursday that Ferrand still had "all my confidence" and called him a "loyal, upstanding man" with an "exemplary" political career."