While many French people see him as a future president, Edouard Philippe is now in the media after being targeted by a complaint. According to the newspaper Le Monde, a complaint was in fact filed on September 14 by the former deputy general director of the urban community against the current mayor of Le Havre for acts of “illegal taking of interests, misappropriation of property, favoritism, extortion and moral harassment”.
We learn that this complaint also targets two other people, namely the deputy mayor in charge of innovation and digital technology, Stéphanie de Bazelaire, and the general director of urban community services, Claire-Sophie Tasias.
The facts date back to July 2020, Édouard Philippe, president of the urban community, signed with Stéphanie de Bazelaireat the time volunteer president of the LH French Tech association, a multi-year agreement of objectives for the operation and animation of the Digital City of Le Havre. Lawyers from the urban community would then have issued recommendations and alerts on the situation of conflict of interest in which the president found herself. Immediately, the company LH French Tech created in July 2020, was designated for this mission following a call for demonstrations launched by the urban community, in March 2020, and as part of a service of economic interest general (SIEG). The only candidate, the association was to receive 2.154 million euros in compensation from the urban community public service to carry out projects, recalls the national daily.
“We can wonder about the choice of such a legal arrangement when the president of the urban community is himself a state councilor experienced in public procurement,” reacted Me Christelle Mazza. In the exercise of her duties, her client had reported in September 2022 in a note addressed to Edouard Philippe the accumulation of functions of the digital assistant. She had also mentioned the budgetary situation of the LH French Tech association and “the serious legal risks” of the latter being placed in compulsory liquidation, both for the community and for the association, again according to Le Monde. For having “dared to sound the whistle”, the complainant claims to have been sidelined and morally harassed after this famous note and her three-year contract was not renewed.
ES