AAt the beginning of the summer, President Alain Rousset was interviewed discreetly by the investigating judges of Nanterre who are investigating the financing of his 2015 campaign. According to information from “Sud Ouest”, the president of the Region Nouvelle-Aquitaine emerged from the magistrates’ office weighed down with indictments for “embezzlement of public funds” and “extortion”. According to judicial terminology which does not presume any guilt, the magistrates considered that there were serious or consistent indications making it likely that the elected PS who has presided over the community since 1998 was able to use the means of the Region to carry out the countryside. But contrary to the prosecution’s requisitions, the judges did not consider it necessary to place the elected official under judicial supervision.
A collection of emails
Justice has been investigating possible breaches for almost three years following a report made by a former close collaborator of the disgraced elected official. David Angevin, who had for a time held the position of “pen” of the president, had provided the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office with a thick collection of documents. Among these documents, a significant number of emails reporting tasks related to the electoral campaign such as the production of notes or elements of language accomplished by members of the cabinet, but also, to a lesser extent, by members administrative staff during their working hours. In particular, there were summons to “campaign meetings” bringing together members of the cabinet and campaign executives in the Mauriac room of the Regional Council. But also instructions for discretion, asking for example not to use professional email addresses.
Transmitted to the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), the procedure finally landed in Nanterre. Due to the presence within the administration of Nouvelle-Aquitaine during the period covered by a magistrate on secondment who has since been assigned as an investigating judge to the financial center of the Paris judicial court, in charge of important cases followed by the PNF, the prosecutor’s office specializing in political-financial affairs preferred a change of scenery for the case. In Bordeaux, the judicial police had searched the premises of the Region and carried out a spectacular wave of police custody targeting the entire cabinet at the time.
The salary of the DGS
The investigation also highlighted the contract of a DGS paid beyond what the text on the remuneration of territorial civil servants allows (hence the indictment for “extortion”).
In the defense of the President of the Region, the latter benefited from two placements under assisted witness status regarding the employment of his campaign director Émilie Coutanceau as well as the employment of a project manager before the elections. “It’s a start which proves that this file deserves contradictory work”, underlines Me Jean Gonthier who defends Alain Rousset with his colleague Me François Artuphel.
I have no doubt that the investigations will demonstrate my good faith, being reminded that I am not accused of any personal enrichment”
Asked by “Sud Ouest”, Alain Rousset said he was “hurt” by this indictment but relieved to be able to “establish the truth”. “I was able to contest with the greatest firmness the facts which were criticized against me in particular by a former member of the Regional Council who had been dismissed for professional inadequacy. I will demonstrate that my colleagues have largely fulfilled their missions in the service of the Region, even beyond their commitments, in compliance with the rules incumbent on all public officials. To claim the opposite would be to deny those who fully carry out their work the right to get involved, to invest, and to campaign. I have no doubt that the investigations will demonstrate my good faith, being reminded that I am not accused of any personal enrichment” pointed out the elected official, regretting that “the investigation did not attempt to retrace the colossal work carried out by the cabinet at a time when we were in the midst of a merger of the two Regions.
For the defense, this file could in particular set a case law on the status of office collaborators. “This is a fundamental point because the cabinet is a political body. Its members are politicians serving politics which without them would be powerless in the face of the administration. Forbidding them to worry about the re-election of their boss is nonsense,” criticizes Me Jean Gonthier.
Long ignored, the supervision of the missions of colleagues of elected officials is increasingly regulated. For several years, the National Campaign Accounts Commission has alerted parliamentarians in particular to the ban on them using their assistants for electoral campaigns. Obviously, the outcome of the procedure against Alain Rousset (which could lead either to a dismissal of the case or to a referral to trial) will be closely scrutinized in the world of communities.
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