The government refuses to grant approval to Anticor, the association denounces a “strategy of decay”

Founded in 2002 “to fight corruption and restore ethics in politics”, Anticor has been fighting for over a year to regain its approval.

The government once again implicitly refused, on Friday July 26, to grant Anticor the authorization allowing it to intervene in corruption cases, a position immediately denounced by the association as a “rotting strategy”. Founded in 2002 “to fight corruption and restore ethics in politics”Anticor has been fighting for over a year to regain its approval.

This provision has allowed it since 2015 to intervene in legal proceedings, including political-financial cases, in particular by constituting itself as a civil party in the event of inaction by the prosecution. This procedure most of the time allows investigations to be relaunched with the appointment of an investigating judge.

The government had until midnight on Thursday evening to respond to its new request for approval received on January 25. But no decision was published on Friday morning in the Official Journal, which constitutes an implicit refusal, according to the association.

“For over a year now, the government has been playing for time by not responding to our requests for approval or to our requests for explanations after the fact,” Paul Cassia, president of the association, regretted to AFP.

Anticor, which claims to have nearly 7,000 members as of mid-July, has taken the matter to the Paris administrative court to have this implicit refusal annulled. It has also asked Matignon to explain this choice and filed a new application for approval, the third, with the Prime Minister.

Anticor lost its accreditation in June 2023 after two dissidents brought the matter before the administrative courts, arguing that the renewal procedure was irregular and that the association did not meet the required conditions. The association claims to have met the five conditions required for the renewal of its accreditation, in particular “the disinterested and independent nature of its activities, assessed in particular with regard to the origin of its resources”.