President Hollande suffered a fresh blow yesterday when his Budget Minister resigned after being placed under formal investigation on suspicion of tax evasion.
Jérôme Cahuzac stepped down from his strategic post and was replaced by Bernard Cazenave, the Europe Minister.
Mr Cahuzac, a wealthy former plastic surgeon, was under fire over claims that he held a Swiss bank until 2010 to avoid paying French taxes.
Given that he was in charge of the fight against tax evasion, the allegations - which he fiercely denies - represented a significant embarrassment to Mr Hollande.
The claims are based largely on a recorded conversation from 2000 in which a man can be heard talking about his account at UBS, the Swiss bank.
“It p*****s me off to have