Embarrassing revelations. The High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP) opened an investigation on Tuesday, November 8, into the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher. This investigation comes after the publication of an article by Disclose revealing that his children held shares in a company whose funds are partly domiciled in tax havens. Franceinfo explains to you what is alleged against the minister and her family.
What does Disclose reveal?
According to the investigative media, the children of the Minister for Energy Transition are partners of Arjunem, a French company, not mentioned on the minister’s declaration of interests. It was created by Jean-Michel Runacher, the minister’s father, in 2016, as part of a transfer of assets. The person concerned, who led the oil company Perenco for many years, contributed about 1.2 million euros in shares. An operation that could be likened to a desire to avoid paying inheritance tax.
According to Disclose, this heritage comes from hedge funds based in Delaware, Ireland and Guernsey, in which Perenco also held investments. Four of her grandchildren are partners, including the three children of Agnès Pannier-Runacher, who were minors at the time, and for whom the minister signed as legal representative.
How is the Minister defending herself?
With Disclose, Agnès Pannier-Runacher affirms that she has no “not to declare this structure”, since the law obliges him to declare his direct participations and those of his spouse, but not those of his children, which the HATVP confirmed. However, the authority specifies to Disclose that “the absence of a declarative obligation does not exempt the public official from taking care to prevent and put an end to situations of conflict of interest which would arise from other indirect interests held, such as the activity of children or other members of family”.
The minister explains in a detailed response that her children were bare owners and therefore did not receive any dividend, Jean-Michel Runacher remaining the usufructuary. She adds that Arjunem was fine “subject to French taxation”. The financial products are deposited in a bank in Luxembourg, she confirmed. “It is not about my heritage, but that of my children who, themselves, have no power to manage the company to date”further specifies the minister to Disclose.
“There is therefore nothing concealed, nothing hidden”she insisted, explaining that the operations concerned had been carried out by “through a French company”. On the origin of the funds, Jean-Michel Runacher “contributed fund units that have no connection with Perenco. These are investments acquired in the past as part of his personal investments”she said, referring to her father “for more details”.
The oil company Perenco, his father’s former employer, is “a foreign company which exists, which exercises its oil activities outside France. I therefore did not have, within the framework of my functions as minister, to know the activities of this group”. At the National Assembly, she denounced on Tuesday “false and slanderous allegations”assuring that this subject had no “no link with (his) functions as minister”.
What are the other reactions?
The opposition was quick to criticize the minister. MP Clémence Guetté (LFI) wondered about “probity” to speed up on renewable energies from a minister “whose indirect financial interests are visibly linked to oil companies”. “There is tax optimization, there is conflict of interest. It’s not a storm in a teacup, it’s serious”said PCF boss Fabien Roussel on France 2.
Pointing to funds that “come from somewhat exotic countries”Olivier Marleix, boss of the LR deputies, felt that it came back “to a tremendous optimization” tax. “The Minister must explain herself”decided for his part the deputy RN Sébastien Chenu on franceinfo, Wednesday. “If all goes well, if everything is in order, continue your activity, we will continue to fight against what you are leading as a policy. On the other hand, if you have failed in your obligations, you will have to draw the consequences, that’s it , no more no less”he continued.
Is the minister’s position weakened?
On the government side, the Prime Minister, Elisabeth Borne, preferred to let her minister defend herself and affirmed before the deputies on Tuesday that her “role was not to comment on press articles”. “We are in a hemicycle, not in a court”she added. “It is not this article which must decide the fate of the minister”, supported during a press briefing Loïc Signor, spokesman for the presidential party Renaissance. The Elysée remained silent on this affair.
An understandable embarrassment, because as Minister for the Ecological Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher is on the front line on many burning issues for the government, such as energy sobriety or ecological planning, which notably involves reducing the consumption of fossil fuels.
Many actors in these cases, who have in their sights the oil company Perenco, accused of environmental damage in the Democratic Republic of Congo, risk being cooled by these revelations, according to Le Monde (subscribers article). Like Greenpeace, which called for the resignation of the minister on Tuesday. “Not only is the Minister not up to the challenges of the energy transition, but it is now becoming impossible to consider her as a credible interlocutor on the stated objective of phasing out fossil fuels”writes the NGO in a press release.