Tuesday, in the Assembly, the opposition challenged the government on the existence of a potential conflict of interest which concerns the Minister of Energy Transition Agnès Pannier-Runacher. Renaud Dély’s political editorial.
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The government falls on a new bone. The website Disclose revealed that the father of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, a former executive in the oil sector, had created a company in which he sold shares to his grandchildren. Three of them are the minister’s children. However, these funds would come from the oil industry, and would have fructified partly in tax havens, the American state of Delaware, Ireland and Guernsey.
>> Agnès Pannier-Runacher suspected of conflict of interest: “It is the discredit that is thrown on our democracy”, reacts Anticor
Hence the question: is the Minister suspected of having committed an illegal act? At this stage, no. Clearly. There is no offence. First, because no one can be held responsible for the acts of his father. Then, because it is not about his heritage, but that of his children. Finally, because Agnès Pannier-Runacher certifies that she never had to deal, as minister, with files related to her father’s activities. She therefore denounced “false and slanderous accusations“. There is also no irregularity either: nothing relating to her assets or that of her spouse, she was not required to declare this situation in her declaration to the High Authority for the transparency of public life. The Minister could have just been more cautious and pointed out this situation by becoming Minister for the Energy Transition in May. But this decision is a matter of political precaution, even of personal ethics, but not right.
Nevertheless, for the government, the accusation falls rather badly… This explains Elisabeth Borne’s annoyed response to the Assembly. Challenged, the Prime Minister was content to launch: “We are in a hemicycle, not in court!“. The accusation falls all the more badly as on Tuesday, precisely, the Head of State received at the Elysée the representatives of the 50 most polluting industrial sites to encourage them to accelerate their ecological transition.
The Insoumis, they take pleasure in stirring up suspicion by claiming the head of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, which they have renamed “Minister for Petroleum Interests“. A way of trying to return the hot potato of business to the camp of the majority, while one of their major figure, the deputy Adrien Quatennens targeted by a complaint for acts of domestic violence which he admitted, still hasn’t resigned.