French minister resigns over probe into daughters' jobs

French Interior Minister Bruno Le Roux resigned today a few hours after prosecutors opened an investigation into a report that he hired his two daughters for a series of temporary parliamentary jobs, starting when they were 15 and 16 years old.
President Francois Hollande said he had accepted Le Roux's resignation after a meeting with Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve at the Elysee Palace. He named the country's low-profile trade and tourism minister, Matthias Fekl, as the new interior minister.
France's national financial prosecutor's office opened a preliminary investigation Tuesday after TMC television reported today night that Le Roux employed his daughters as parliamentary assistants for a total salary amount of 55,000 euros (USD 59,000).

The office said the preliminary investigation into the facts disclosed in the TV program is being led by the French police agency charged with fighting corruption and financial and tax wrongdoing.
While it is legal in France for politicians to hire family members, the TMC report suggests that Le Roux' daughters did not perform all of the work.
Le Roux's daughters, now 23 and 20, allegedly started working as parliamentary aides for their father over short vacation contracts when they were 15 and 16 and Le Roux was a lawmaker in the French National Assembly.
"These temporary and official contracts, in accordance with the legal rules of the National Assembly, all corresponded, of course, to works actually carried out," Le Roux insisted as he announcied his resignation from Bobigny, a suburb outside Paris.

Le Roux, a member of the Socialist Party, was quoted by TMC as saying his daughters worked for him during school vacations to gain experience.