Resignation
While Gaymard's actions were not illegal, the exposure of Gaymard's accepting lavish, state-funded perks, followed by his attempts to mislead in interviews, was bad news for the government at a time when the French public was asked to accept more economic sacrifices while reeling from a staggering unemployment rate that reached 10% in January, the highest level in over five years. Gaymard himself had said that the French should become "detoxified" of public spending. Curbing spending has been at the forefront of Gaymard's office, giving hope to voters that the economy there would soon improve. And, as it was part of his responsibilities to regulate the housing market, he could not be unaware of the difficulties facing families seeking affordable accommodations.
He resigned less than 5 hours before he was to give a televised interview defending his actions. In his issued statement, he said, "I am aware that I committed blunders and, above all, a serious error of judgement…"
Following this scandal, Prime Minister Jean-Pierre Raffarin tightened up the rules for public officials using state-funded apartments. However, the Canard soon revealed that Budget Minister Jean-François Copé also enjoyed an expensive apartment paid for by the state while he owned an apartment in Paris.
There has been some controversy regarding how the Canard and Libération had obtained such information. At one point, it was suggested that they were orchestrated by Nicolas Sarkozy, a political rival of Gaymard from the same party.
On 26 August 2005, Hervé Gaymard was reintegrated into the civil service corps of the administrateurs civils, with a hors-classe rank, and assigned to the Ministry of Finances (direction of the budget). (ministerial decision in Journal Officiel, 13 September 2005; Le Monde, 20 September 2005) after refunding the state the €58,894 that the refurbishment of his apartment had cost. Hervé Gaymard has previously announced that he considered working in the private sector. It is unknown, at this point, whether he considers going back to politics in the future.
