In November 2011, the Minister of the Interior made an official visit to Côte d’Ivoire. It is then Claude Guéant, who is received with all the honors. It must be said that he did not come empty-handed: in his luggage, 34 police cars for the Ivorian state. To thank him, President Ouattara offers him a painting by a local painter, the value of which could reach 20,000 euros.
Two years later, when Claude Guéant left Place Beauvau, the painting is visible in the background during an interview filmed in his law firm. Did the former minister have the right to keep it?
A Fillon circular
The answer can be found in a 2007 circular, where the Prime Minister at the time indicated the procedure to follow in such cases: “Gifts offered to members of the government or to their spouses in the exercise of governmental functions are , for their authors, the manifestation of their desire to honor France. (…) It is therefore normal that they do not enter into the heritage of the minister or his family.” In other words, deciphers Eric Landot, lawyer specializing in public law, “If you receive a gift, we will assume that it is for the State that it happened, and therefore it is to the State that you pay it back”.
Could Claude Guéant think that the painting was offered to him, as Claude Guéant, and not as Minister of the Republic? “Sure”, is it appropriate when “Complément d’Enquête” asks him the question on the phone (he does not know that he is recorded).
“- This painting, do you still have it?
– Obviously ! He’s at my place.”Claude Guéant, former Minister of the Interiorquestioned by “Further investigation”
“In any case, he argues, its value certainly does not justify its return to national collections”. Me Landot, he has another reading of the Fillon circular: does it lead “that this gift was made in the name of the State, and that this painting should therefore have been given to the Mobilier national? The answer is yes!” No legal action has been brought on this subject against Claude Guéant.
Excerpt from “State heritage: where have the jewels of the Republic gone?”, a document to see in “Complementary investigation” on October 6, 2022.
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