The opposition of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region demands “transparency” after a trip by Laurent Wauquiez to Japan

The newspaper “Le Monde” reveals that the president of the Region made a trip to the Japanese archipelago without informing elected officials of the financing conditions.

A journey that questions. The socialist and environmentalist opponents of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council are calling for “transparency” after a business trip by the president, Laurent Wauquiez, to Japan. According to The worldwho revealed the information on Saturday April 20, the manager traveled to the Japanese archipelago from March 8 to 15.

It was a move “economically oriented in which more than 25 regional companies participated”, justified Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises, the region’s economic development agency, of which Laurent Wauquiez is co-president. “It is false to say that this trip had any confidential nature”further reacts the agency, which assures that it has “communicated on multiple occasions on social networks, to businesses and to the general public”.

A dinner in a starred restaurant

The environmental group at the regional council, which believes in a press release that Laurent Wauquiez does not “hardly cares about transparency”, “requests that all elements relating to this trip be made public”. Same request from the Socialist, Ecologist and Democrat group. Moreover, the former hope “that the Court of Auditors will finally carry out an audit of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Entreprises Agency, as it proposed in its report on the accounts of the Region in 2019”.

The regional opposition is particularly questioning the organization of a dinner with nearly 150 French and Japanese business leaders in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo. She reiterates her criticism of Laurent Wauquiez’s expenses, already pointed out by Mediapart for a very expensive dinner organized in the summer of 2022.

“This new affair also reinforces our questions about the activities of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises over which the control of elected officials is very limited”affirm the socialist elected representatives, who emphasize that the agency is “80% funded” by the Region. For its part, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises emphasizes that “the amounts are not consolidated at this stage”but that the financial statement “may be disseminated as part of the process of presenting the agency’s own accounts”.