In full light since his appointment in the government of François Bayrou, he has had a series of controversies. This Monday, January 13, several media, including Le Monde and BFM TV, revealed that the current Minister of Transport Philippe Tabarot was suspected of “embezzlement of public funds” and “illegal taking of interests” in an investigation carried out for several years by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office.
A member of the Republicans (LR, ex-UMP) for around twenty years, he has long evolved in the shadow of his father Robert, former municipal councilor of Cannes, and his older sister Michèle, former secretary general of the right-wing party and current LR deputy for Alpes-Maritimes. At the heart of Philippe Tabarot's trajectory, these family connections are also linked to the legal proceedings currently underway.
A father leader of the OAS in Algeria
It seems difficult to present Philippe Tabarot without mentioning the figure of his father Robert, best known for having been one of the leaders of the Secret Army Organization (OAS), a French clandestine terrorist organization close to the extreme right created in 1961 to defend the French presence in Algeria by all means.
A trader established in Algeria in the 1950s, a high-level boxer crowned North African champion several times, Robert Tabarot was also the right-hand man of General Jouhaud, the head of the OAS in the Oran region. Following the signing of the Evian Accords and the independence of Algeria in 1962, Philippe Tabarot's father left the country to take refuge in Spain.
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Entered politics upon reaching the age of majority
He then had to wait until 1969 and an amnesty law for former OAS members to return to France. He then settled with his family (his wife, his eldest son Roch and his daughter Michèle, born in 1962) in the Cannes region, where his wife gave birth to their son Philippe in 1970. Increasingly involved in the local politics, Robert Tabarot was notably a municipal councilor of the city between 1977 and 1983 and transmitted the “virus” to his children.
As Nice Matin recalls, Philippe Tabarot in fact followed in the footsteps of his sister, engaged in politics in the 1980s. In 1989, when he had barely reached the age of majority, the young man even found himself on the list of Michel Mouillot, who will be elected mayor of Cannes and joins the municipal council. “The first time in my life when I voted, I was able to vote for myself,” summarizes the person concerned, quoted by Nice Matin.
Twice unsuccessful candidate for mayor of Cannes
After joining Alain Madelin's Démocratie Libérale party in the early 1990s, Philippe Tabarot then joined the team of his sister Michèle, who ran for mayor of Le Cannet (commune located in the suburbs of Cannes) in 1995. First campaign director, he then took charge of the new mayor's office.
Philippe Tabarot, however, retained his support and his ambitions within the Cannes municipality, where he remained on the council for around fifteen years. Now a member of the UMP; he ran for mayor for the first time in 2008, but failed against the outgoing Bernard Brochant. He tried his luck again in the 2014 municipal elections and reached the second round again, but this time lost to David Lisnard.
Senator, he opposes IPCC experts in 2021
Despite these two failures, Philippe Tabarot continues his rise within the UMP. He was thus elected to the regional council of Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur in 2015 on the list of Christian Estrosi and obtained the position of vice-president in charge of transport, intermodality and security. In 2020 he was then elected senator of the Alpes-Maritimes, this time on the list of Christian Estrosi's wife, Dominique Estrosi Sassone.
It is in this role of senator that Philippe Tabarot made a first notable media appearance, in 2021. During the hearing of French experts from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) by the commission on territorial planning and sustainable development, Tabarot attacks climatologist Valérie Masson-Delmotte, accusing her of “lecturing” local elected officials.
“Tabarot equals death of public rail service”
Specializing over the years in issues related to transport, Philippe Tabarot defends above all a liberal line, favorable to opening up to competition and privatization. When he arrived at the Ministry of Transport last December, he declared in particular: “The regions are realizing that they have every interest in opening their network to competition because it allows them to increase the supply (…) at the same level of investment for the community”.
Recalling that Philippe Tabarot had also introduced in April 2024, as a senator, a bill aimed at limiting the right to strike during certain periods, several union officials had judged, at the time of his appointment, that it was not “Frankly not good news.” “Tabarot equals the death of the public rail service, warned Olivier Gaumet, general secretary of the CGT Cheminots de Nice, quoted by RMC. Soon, it is they who will decide the day and time when we go on strike. This is the end of rights.”
Strongly criticized for his reaction after the suicide of a TGV driver on December 24
Philippe Tabarot's first days at the Ministry of Transport were also marked by the suicide of a TGV driver on the evening of December 24 and by the controversy created by the minister's speech after the tragedy. As Franceinfo recalls, Philippe Tabarot declared on CNews: “We could have missed a bigger disaster, which could have been more serious if the driver had wanted to derail his train.”
This media release did not fail to provoke a reaction from the railway workers' unions mourning the suicide of their colleague and fellow fighter. “Indecent, cynical… no message of support, of condolences. The new Minister of Transport, who even dares to alleviate the humanly terrible situation. You have crossed the red line”, the federal secretary of Sud Rail had posted on Paris Match.
Following this episode, Philippe Tabarot finally backpedaled by affirming that his words had been “misinterpreted”, but also that the suicide of Bruno Rejony was “above all a human drama” and that “the State and the SNCF will be alongside the family of the deceased. If this exit only moderately convinced the railway workers' unions, the controversy then died down little by little.
He would have received nearly 100,000 euros per year as a collaborator of his sister
This “bad media buzz” also had the effect of completely obscuring information published on December 24 by Libération. According to the daily, Philippe Tabarot would have in fact received an annual remuneration totaling around 100,000 euros for several years “as a simple collaborator of his sister, Michèle Tabarot, in her various political functions”.
Less than a month later, the revelations of Le Monde seem to confirm these elements by indicating that the minister is “at the heart of a judicial investigation, because of his multiple local hats”, which notably gave rise to a search in 2022. According to the evening daily, investigators from the National Financial Prosecutor's Office are particularly interested in the role of “mission manager” held for years by Philippe Tabarot within the “public interest group for the tourist and cultural development of the city du Cannet”, of which his sister was mayor between 1995 and 2017.
