As massive strikes over pension reform in France continue for a 12th day – with unions livid, for one, that workers under the revamp would have to work until age 64 to retire without penalty – one key player is already out of a job: The father of the reform, Jean-Paul Delevoye, stepped down Monday under the glare of a transparency scandal.

Delevoye, the High Commissioner for Pensions, handed in his resignation to President Emmanuel Macron, who accepted it “with regret”, after a tumultuous week for the reform’s point man, a longtime conservative former senator, minister and national ombudsman Named by Macron in September 2017 to lay the groundwork for the freshly elected leader’s sweeping pension overhaul, the 72-year-old Delevoye was drafted into the cabinet in September 2019 to pursue the reform that was finally rolled out last week.

He was dubbed “Mister Pensions” as he puzzled out the controversial switch to a points-based retirement system, conducting consultations over the hot-button reform with unions, officials and ordinary citizens across the country over the course of 18 months.

But soon after crippling transit strikes against the planned reform began this month, it became clear in a drumbeat of media revelations that Delevoye had failed to declare multiple side jobs, both voluntary and paid, that he kept after joining the government.

Some, like his role with the French Federation for Diabetics or with two classical music associations, caused little intrinsic alarm, but others were more problematic.

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