Marianne Fund hearing: Sifaoui charges Schiappa, the administration, the media

June 15, 2023

Mohamed Sifaoui, whose association is singled out in the controversial management of the Marianne Fund, maintained that he had been “manipulated” and trapped during a very offensive hearing in the Senate where he denounced the political power, the administration or the media again.

He was heard Thursday by the Senate Commission of Inquiry into the controversial management of the Marianne Fund launched in April 2021 by Marlène Schiappa, then Minister Delegate for Citizenship, six months after the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty. This fund, initially endowed with 2.5 million euros, aimed to finance associations fighting against “separatism” and radical Islam on social networks.

The association of which Mr. Sifaoui was director of operations, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), was the main beneficiary of the fund: 355,000 euros were to be granted to it.

“The first mistake I made was to have trusted Ms. Schiappa (currently Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy, editor’s note), to her teams, to have darkened”, declared Mr. Sifaoui.

He felt he had been “trapped, instrumentalised”, “betrayed” and “manipulated by political power”.

The day after the hearing of the minister, who had denied “any personal relationship with him”, Mr. Sifaoui returned the favor: “Marlène Schiappa was not my friend”, “she will be even less so tomorrow”, adding: “I don’t respect people who don’t have courage”.

He maintains that she “is not guilty of embezzlement”, but guilty “politically speaking”.

Exchanges with the rapporteur and President of the Commission are lively and aggressive. Mohamed Sifaoui denounces the “media lynching”, but also attacks those responsible. “Mr. rapporteur, you are making an unfortunate shortcut (…) Is that clear!”, “what you are saying is ridiculous, there are insinuations behind it”, he says to the rapporteur (LR) Jean-Francois Husson. An “Amen” fuses, in conclusion of a remark.

“You have to keep your nerves,” reframes the latter.

Mohamed Sifaoui also attacked the “pathetic” report of the General Inspectorate of Administration (IGA) published last week: this document had noted several irregularities and in particular that “the USEPPM was not eligible for the benefit of a financing”, due in particular to “breaches in its reporting obligations”.

The essayist notes that the authors of the report made a “factual error” in the date of the assassination of Samuel Paty. This “proves the lightness, the haste, the lack of rigor with which this report was written”.

“The IGA is in an attitude of self-legitimization of the administration (…) by trying to (…) find lampists, in this case (…) myself and the prefect ( Christian) Gravel”, he asserts.

Christian Gravel, the head of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR, the body which was in charge of managing this fund at the Ministry of the Interior), also implicated in the report of the ‘IGA, resigned last week.

On the merits of the case, Mr. Sifaoui claimed to have filed his file “at the request” of Marlène Schiappa. And says he learned “through the press”, “through an interview” with the minister, the launch of the project, on April 20, under the name Marianne Fund.

While explaining that he regularly goes to the CIPDR… because he is bound by another contract with this structure: a consultant contract, to train teams, and for which he received 39,500 euros excluding taxes, running from November 2020 to January 2023 .

“I have a capacity for work that is much higher than normal, out of passion, out of intellectual interest in the subject”, explained Mohamed Siafoui, to whom the chairman of the commission pointed out that he was also a full-time employee, in the USEPPM contract put in place from the launch of the fund.

Will it refund part of the grant received, as requested by the IGA? “It will be a court decision, if reimbursement there must be,” he retorts.

The Senate also voted Thursday to create a commission of inquiry in response to the request of part of the family of Samuel Paty, who wants to be able to establish “the flaws” that allowed the assassination of the ‘teacher.