The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) opened, Thursday, May 4, a judicial investigation relating, in particular, to suspicions of embezzlement of public funds in the management of the Marianne fund, created in 2021 to fight against separatism, announced the PNF, confirming information from France Inter.
The management of this Marianne fund, launched in April 2021 by Minister Marlène Schiappa – then Minister Delegate for Citizenship – a few months after the assassination of Professor Samuel Paty to promote the “values of the Republic”, was the subject of several reports to justice after revelations from the weekly Marianne, from France 2 and Mediapart on the use of subsidies allocated to two associations. The judicial investigation relates to suspicions of embezzlement of public funds, embezzlement of public funds by negligence, breach of trust and illegal taking of interests.
In early April, Ms. Schiappa’s office said it had seized the General Administration Inspectorate (IGA) of an audit on this file. The IGA report will be “delivered at the end of June”, said Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin. According to the joint investigation by Marianne and France 2 broadcast at the end of March, the main beneficiary structure of the funds (an association called USEPPM), up to 355,000 euros, would have only fed a website and publications very little followed on the networks. social. Some 120,000 euros were used to pay two of its ex-leaders.
Mediapart then revealed that several left-wing personalities, including the mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo (Socialist Party), had been denigrated in content posted online by another structure benefiting from the fund, Rebuild the common, which obtained 330,000 euros. .
The announcement of the PNF comes the day after the vote, by the Senate Finance Committee, of a request for a commission of inquiry on this subject. If this is acted upon, the Finance Committee will then have the important prerogatives attributed to the commissions of inquiry for three months: the people it wishes to hear are thus required to respond to the summons and take an oath.