The proceedings were opened by a Senate report on the growing influence of private advisers on government policy
French President Emmanuel Macron was calm this Friday after it came to light yesterday that the Justice Department has opened two proceedings over possible irregularities in campaign accounts for the 2017 and 2022 presidential elections and the conditions for private advisers to intervene. On both occasions, Macron won the election over far-right Marine Le Pen.
The president assured that he was aware of the news through the press. “I have only seen the statement (from the National Financial Prosecutor). I don’t know anything, nobody wrote to me, nobody called me,” Macron said. The French head of state believed that it is “normal for the Justice Department to do its job”, after receiving several complaints from associations and elected officials.
“The 2017 accounts have already been examined, re-examined and re-examined. It doesn’t escape them that there are sometimes problems with the campaign reports, but mine has been investigated, as have all the 2017 candidates,” he recalled when asked about the “McKinsey case.” As for the 2022 accounts, the president explained that they are currently being analyzed by the competent authorities, just like those of the other candidates.
Macron, who enjoys presidential immunity during his term, hoped that “light will be shed on this matter”. “I fear nothing. I think your server is not at the center of the investigation,” Macron said, deploring that some want to “politicize” the matter.
Neither his name nor that of his party appear in the press release issued yesterday by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office, which broadly speaks of an investigation into the 2017 and 2022 presidential campaigns and the role of private advisers. But according to the French press, Macron is in the crosshairs of justice on this issue. The investigating judges are investigating the relations of the president and his entourage with private advisers, in particular with the American McKinsey.
The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) announced on Thursday that it opened initial legal proceedings last October over possible irregularities in the election accounts of the 2017 and 2022 election campaigns and the involvement of private advisers in them. The second judicial inquiry is for “favoritism and concealment of favoritism,” according to the PNF.
These two legal proceedings were initiated following the release of a report by the Senate Investigation Committee on the growing influence of private advisers on government policy and in response to complaints from elected officials, associations, labor unions and individuals. According to the letter, ministries’ spending on private consultancies had more than doubled, from €379 million in 2018 to €894 million in 2021.
Last March, the prosecutor’s office had already opened a preliminary investigation for “aggravated tax fraud money laundering” against the American consultancy firm McKinsey and its subsidiary in France, suspected of not paying taxes for ten years (between 2011 and 2020) thanks to the “tax optimization. The North US consulting firm assures they met standards The opposition had called for the opening of an investigation into alleged favoritism McKinsey allegedly benefited from Macron and his entourage.
The newspaper ‘Le Monde’ revealed in February 2021 that there were numerous links between the president and the consultant. Several employees or former employees of that company worked for Macron’s first election campaign in 2017. After his election victory, some of them held positions of responsibility in their party or in ministerial cabinets.
The press and opposition also question whether Macron favored McKinsey when awarding contracts during his first term. The American consultancy advised the government on anti-covid vaccination, among other things.
Source: La Verdad
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