(Paris) The French Minister for SMEs, Alain Griset, resigned Wednesday after being sentenced to six months in prison for having concealed part of his heritage.
“Alain Griset has therefore resigned as a member of the government” to President Emmanuel Macron and Prime Minister Jean Castex, according to a statement released by the Ministry of the Economy on which he depended.
In the French government since July 2020, Mr. Griset has been the incumbent prime minister to appear before a criminal court. On Wednesday, justice sentenced him to six months suspended imprisonment and a three-year ineligibility sentence.
The moralization of political life in France had been one of the major projects of Emmanuel Macron, elected president in 2017 after a campaign marked by legal scandals. The same year, Parliament passed a law on this subject.
In delivering its judgment, the court held that Mr. Griset “had chosen to conceal a substantial part of his assets” and noted two aggravating elements: the funds in question were lodged in a French bank and he “showed proof of ‘a real desire for concealment’.
He is suspected of having intentionally concealed from the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) the holding of a stock savings plan of 171,000 euros and “direct holdings” in several companies such as la Française des Games or Natixis.
Also in question, a sum of 130,000 euros placed in his share savings plan and which belonged to the National Confederation of Crafts, Trades and Services (Cnams) of the North, an organization that Mr. Griset had headed since 1991 .
Before his judges, Mr. Griset, 68, a former taxi craftsman from the north of France, had defended his probity by pleading “an awkwardness” and rejecting any “dishonesty”.
“At no time did I want to cheat, steal or hide anything. When you have the chance to be a minister, you don’t waste that chance by trying to cover up something that was so visible, ”he said. At the helm, he also recalled his humble origins, his lack of diplomas. “I am bac -8”.
In case of conviction, “I will continue as long as the president (Emmanuel Macron) trusts me”, he then said.
The court was less severe in its decision than the prosecution’s requisitions. The latter demanded against the minister ten to twelve months suspended imprisonment and a three-year ineligibility sentence without suspension.
The Minister’s lawyer, Me Patrick Maisonneuve, announced that he was going to appeal this conviction.