“rebellious” deputies accuse Emmanuel Macron of “embezzlement of public funds” before his campaign

Did Emmanuel Macron make mistakes when he was Minister of the Economy? The deputies of La France insoumise announced, Monday, February 7, to have reported to the justice of the facts likely, according to them, to fall under the “embezzlement of public funds”. They accuse him of having organized in Bercy, before his 2017 campaign, dinners with journalists, business leaders, or even personalities from the world of culture, on public funds, “for the purpose of building a network in the run-up to the presidential election”.

These accusations relate to facts reported by the program “Complément d’Enquête”, on February 3, on France 2, which returned to the “dinners at Bercy” organized by Emmanuel Macron. This episode had already been revealed by the journalistic work In the hell of Bercy, by Frédéric Says and Marion L’Hour, published in January 2017.

According to a letter dated February 4, the “rebellious” group in the National Assembly seized the national financial prosecutor on the basis of article 40 of the penal code, which notably allows any constituted authority to denounce to justice acts considered criminal.

According to the Secretary of State for the Budget at the time, all of the credits allocated annually to meals, ie 120,000 euros, would have been spent in the space of eight months. “Representation expenses intended for the minister’s professional invitations, and not for election campaign purposes”, judge the deputies “rebellious”.

During Emmanuel Macron’s campaign in 2017, his party defended the former minister: “Receiving actors from outside the administration at the ministry is part of the role and function of a minister who cannot work in a closed and exclusive circuit with his administration.”