PARIS: French Armed Forces Minister Sylvie Goulard unexpectedly quit her job on Tuesday, saying she did not want to stay on because of an investigation overshadowing her Modem party’s affairs in the European Parliament.

That followed an announcement late on Monday that Richard Ferrand, an aide to President Emmanuel Macron and minister for territorial planning, facing a separate judicial investigation, would move out of government to a job as leader of his party in Parliament.

After a solid win for his centrist Republic On the Move party in a parliamentary election on Sunday, Macron is preparing a government reshuffle before embarking on far-reaching economic and social reforms, including overhauling labor rules.

Separately, sources said France’s far-right National Front has refused to let Jean-Marie Le Pen, the party’s co-founder, attend a meeting, blocking him at the gate on his 89th birthday.

Le Pen, whose daughter Marine now runs the party, said on Tuesday outside party headquarters that while forced out of the party he had a right to attend because of his status as honorary president for life, confirmed by a court.

Speaking outside the gate, Le Pen noted that he lent the party €9 million ($10.04 million) for his daughter’s failed presidential race and legislative elections. The loan was from his funding group Cotelec.

With his trademark irony, Le Pen said that his daughter doubtless was offering him a birthday gift “by this particular delicacy of the heart.”

The ministers’ departure gives Macron a chance to reshape his government without including names who could prove awkward. The president, elected just over a month ago, made improving transparency in politics a priority.

The reshuffle will now be more far-reaching than expected. It is due to be announced by Wednesday evening, with Prime Minister Edouard Philippe staying in the job.

Goulard is a member of Modem, the center-right party that allied itself to Macron’s Republic on the Move (LREM) centrist party in the presidential and legislative elections. Since June 9, Modem has been the subject of an investigation into allegations of misuse of public funds.

“Defense is a demanding portfolio. The honor of our armies, that of the men and women who serve and who put their lives in danger, should not be mixed up with controversies that have nothing to do with them,” Goulard said in a statement.