the investigation by the Radio France investigation unit

Listeners wrote following the investigation by the Radio France Investigation Unit on the A69. Emmanuelle Daviet, Radio France antenna mediator, receives Benoît Collombat, journalist in the Radio France investigation unit.

We received very laudatory messages after the investigation by the Radio France Investigation Unit on the A69, which shows how the pharmaceutical and dermocosmetics group Pierre Fabre actively supported the Castres-Toulouse motorway project, thanks to relays policies and an effective influence strategy. An investigation by Benoît Collombat.

So, as we know, this highway project is not unanimous. Several environmental associations have been opposing it for months. And when we usually listen to reports devoted to the A69, it is rather the angle of environmental protection or biodiversity that is most often mentioned.

Emmanuelle Daviet: Benoît Collombat, how did you come up with the idea of ​​digging into the financial and political aspects of this issue, do listeners ask you?

Benoît Collombat: I would say that there is an intuition, and a question at the origin of this investigation. Intuition, it turns out that five years ago, I already worked on highways. I published a long investigation in March 2019, on the secret history of motorway privatization and already, I was interested in these aspects. At the time, there was particular talk of a 2015 agreement, which was very favorable to motorway concession companies.

At the time, Manuel Valls was Prime Minister and Emmanuel Macron, Minister of the Economy. And so there has already been quite a debate around this question. And I had discovered and revealed at the time that highway companies were also interested in national highways, not just highways, but national highways. So I already had that idea in my head.

And the question arose precisely around the opacity again, this time around the contract and the annexes to the A69 motorway, which a certain number of parliamentarians were unable to consult. Business secrecy was emphasized. It turns out that last February, a parliamentary commission of inquiry was created to look at this more closely.

And so, how did you draw the thread from this very documented investigation?

So the image of the thread is very good, because the subject is very dense. There are a lot of people to talk to, it’s a bit like a maze, so you don’t want to get lost. You really need to follow this thread. So the method is always the same. It is not specific to this investigation.

I would say that there are two stages, there is an immersion phase, we try to understand what is happening, a bit like a geographical map ultimately, so as not to get lost once again, identify the main actors, understand the mechanisms that are at work, and a second phase, where we try to meet these actors and these witnesses, the collection of testimonies.

To put it another way, I would say that it is an investigation from below, and from above. The investigation from below, you have to meet the key characters in this story, and the investigation from above, was to look behind the companies which were financially interested, precisely, in the A69 motorway. This means looking in their accounts in particular, and that’s how by going to look in the accounts of a company in Luxembourg, I discovered that the Pierre Fabre company was indeed interested economically, legally, in the contract, contrary to what the company had said so far.

How long did it take you to put all these elements together?

I started working on this investigation last January, and so it was three uninterrupted months until publication.

Listeners want to know if you will continue to investigate this topic. We know that you are a specialist in long-term investigations. How do you follow this type of file?

You should know that generally speaking, our investigations never leave us. But for us to come back to it, that is to say, to stay in contact with our sources, obviously, we continue to keep an eye on the investigation in question, but for us to come back to it again, This is the vocation of the Radio France investigation unit, there must be significant added value. There must be new revelations, which we can bring to public debate. And if this is the case in the A69, obviously, we will do it.

Moreover, I indicate that the listeners in the messages they sent to us also give you any avenues of research that you might have?

It’s a source like any other, obviously, we take it into account.

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• The investigation by the Radio France investigation unit – Benoît Collombat

“Conflict of interest, financial opacity… Behind the scenes of the controversial A69 project“

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