He prepares a report “of the competent prosecutor” so that “that all suspicion of embezzlement of public funds and illegal taking of interest be lifted”. The environmental group of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes announces, Friday, October 14, that it will take legal action after the publication of a Mediapart investigation (article for subscribers) denouncing a sumptuous dinner organized at the beginning of the summer by the president LR of the region Laurent Wauquiez.
According to the investigative media, this “dinner of the heights” was held last June at the Château de La Chaize, in Beaujolais, and “brought together about 90 people” for a cost “just over 100,000 euros”, a final addition of more than 1,100 euros per guest. The presidency of the region said in an email to Mediapart to have taken the bill “100% at his expense” but did not specify to which budget this expense had been charged.
Asked by AFP, the region also explained that these meals aim to put “in relation to personalities from all walks of life: cultural, economic, sporting, associative, social and solidarity economy…” for “Create great synergies between players in our region” for its development.
These dinners, which bring together personalities from the region and whose first edition was held in March at the Bocuse Institute near Lyon, are held two or three times a year. For the June one “we are on around 165 euros per person, the rest is generally linked to exceptional logistics expenses” related to the organization of a dinner in a classified site, further affirmed the presidency of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes.
These revelations sparked the ire of socialists, the National Rally and environmentalists in the region on Thursday. The latter, who form the main opposition group, chaired by Fabienne Grébert, specify that their report will be transmitted in the coming hours to the prosecutor of Lyon or to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office. He also announced in a press release that he had alerted the Regional Chamber of Accounts.
Noting that“no information has been made to the members of the regional council on these events”environmentalists claim “all transparency” on the file and “the reimbursement of these indecent sums in times of crisis and even though the executive is carrying out an austerity policy in terms of subsidies to the associative world and aid to precarious people”.