An embarrassing proposition? Yannick Jadot’s campaign manager, MEP Mounir Satouri, discussed with the organizers of the popular primary the possibility of offering them 150,000 euros before the latter’s vote, reveals Mediapart (article reserved for subscribers)Friday, February 11.
The scene took place in a restaurant in Paris on October 1, three days after Yannick Jadot’s victory in the environmentalists’ primary, in the presence of Mounir Satouri and Sabrina Sebaihi, respectively spokesperson for the EELV candidate and co-secretary federal Val-de-Marne, and organizers of the Popular Primary Mathilde Imer and Samuel Grzybowski, reports the news site.
“I had heard (…) that the popular Primary had a problem with funding. Around 150,000 euros. Is that true? And if that’s true, I’m ready to discuss it'”ensures Mounir Satouri at Mediapart. In the event of a boost, should they have ended the process of the primary? “Without a doubt”concedes Yannick Jadot’s campaign manager to the site, who also mentions having the idea at that time that Mathilde Imer and Samuel Grzybowski could “animating a participation project around the green primary school”.
But the latter decline the offer of the framework of the campaign. “The door is closed and we move on”therefore believes Mounir Satouri, who assures that this exchange was a matter of “the idea” and not of a “proposal”since the discussion “was not at the end”.
“The trick was to say, ‘If you feel compelled to continue the process for financial reasons, because you have committed money, this financial reason should not be the reason why you continue something that , obviously no longer meets the needs.’ (…) It is not at all to offer money to stop”, retorts to Mediapart Alexis Braud, close adviser to Yannick Jadot. According to Mounir Satouri, neither Yannick Jadot, neither his right-hand man, nor the treasurer of the campaign or the national secretary of EELV, Julien Bayou, were at that time aware of this discussion.