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Prosecutor rules out probe into top Macron ally

French Territorial Cohesion Minister Richard Ferrand was elected to parliament in 2012 as a Socialist

One of French President Emmanuel Macron's closest allies will not face prosecution for alleged wrongdoing over a property deal, a prosecutor said Friday. Embarrassing revelations that Richard Ferrand, a senior minister, benefited from the deal while he ran a public health insurance fund came as the fledgling government prepares a new law to clean up politics. The satirical and investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaine reported Tuesday that while Ferrand headed the fund in his native Brittany region in 2011 the organisation agreed to rent a building proposed by his partner. On the strength of the rental contract, she secured a loan enabling her property management company to buy the building worth around 400,000 euros ($450,000), the report said. Substantial renovation work was carried out by the fund which increased the property's value, it added. On Friday the prosecutor of the Brittany city of Brest, Eric Mathais, said a "legal analysis" of the facts had concluded that no investigation was warranted. Ferrand, elected to parliament in 2012 as a Socialist, had dismissed the affair as a "pseudo-scandal". Macron, a 39-year-old independent, won France's presidential election on May 7 on the back of his grassroots movement called En Marche (On the Move) and has promised legislation to improve ethical standards in public life. Ferrand faced calls Wednesday from far-right leader Marine Le Pen to resign, while the head of the Socialist party Jean-Christophe Cambadelis called on him to explain himself. The health fund managed by Ferrand, the Mutuelles de Bretagne, is one of dozens of private health insurance funds that are a key component of the French public health system. The state reimburses the majority of medical costs for users of the health system, with the rest covered by the private funds.