While his wife, Marguerite Cazeneuve, is the number two of the Health Insurance Fund, Aurélien Rousseau assures that he will deport himself from the subjects of his wife’s activity.
Can one be Minister of Health when his wife is the number 2 of the National Health Insurance Fund (Cnam)? This is one of the questions raised by many Internet users and raised by the Anticor association since the announcement of the appointment of Aurélien Rousseau as Minister of Health, Thursday July 20. Elisabeth Borne’s former chief of staff is married to Marguerite Cazeneuve, Cnam delegate director since March 2021. A position which has raised suspicions about possible conflicts of interest in the ministry.
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According to the legal note from the general secretariat of the government, quoted by the Cnam on Friday in a press release, the risk of conflict of interest is, a priori, ruled out. Subject to the conclusions of the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), “the requirements of impartiality which apply to members of the Government in no way preclude the spouse of the deputy director of the CNAM from being Minister of Health. In the event of such an appointment, it would be up to the person concerned to specify to the Prime Minister that he withdraws from any decision which would concern the personal situation of his spouse within the CNAM”.
Furthermore, the HATVP “will decide in the coming days on the possible deportation mechanisms to be put in place by the new Minister of Health and Prevention”, provides Medicare on Friday.
A passage of Marguerite Cazeneuve at McKinsey
As soon as his appointment was announced, Aurélien Rousseau defended himself from all “legal subject” nearby Worldassuring that he will deport “of any individual decision which could possibly concern her (…) She didn’t wait for me to be at Matignon to be there and no longer for me to be a minister either”he added.
Marguerite Cazeneuve, whose brother, Pierre Cazeneuve, is a Renaissance deputy for Hauts-de-Seine, and the father, Jean-René Cazeneuve, general rapporteur for the budget at the Assembly, also worked as an adviser at the McKinsey firm between 2013 and 2014. She was then adviser in charge of social protection at Matignon and at the Elysée between 2020 and 2021.
On the set of the Télématin show, Friday morninggovernment spokesman Olivier Véran also believes that their positions are not incompatible: “I don’t consider sharing your life with someone who has the same professional passion as you and who is very knowledgeable about health policy to be a problem”.
He also praised his experience in the field “since he led the largest ARS in France in the midst of the Covid crisis”. Aurélien Rousseau is already under pressure from health players, but he “will be keen to aim for the reduction of health inequalities”, assured Olivier Véran.