This is a relief and a major victory for Anticor. At the end of a long political and judicial standoff lasting fourteen months, the anti-corruption association regained, on Thursday, September 5, the government approval that allowed it, from 2015 to 2023, to constitute itself a civil party and to have access to investigating judges, particularly in the event of inaction by the prosecution, in cases of attacks on probity.
Read the decryption (2023): Anticor: understanding the reasons for non-renewal of approval and its consequences
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By a decree which must be published on September 6 in Official Journalthe resigning Prime Minister, Gabriel Attal, granted his approval to Anticor for a period of three years. Just before his replacement by Michel Barnier, Mr. Attal responded favorably to the request made in January by the association created in 2002 and currently involved in 148 legal proceedings.
Mr. Attal considered that Anticor fulfilled “all conditions provided”, “considering” notably “the disinterested and independent nature of its activities, assessed in particular with regard to the origin of its resources set out in its financial documentation and its moral reports for the years 2022 and 2023, and the transparency measures put in place in accordance with the new statutes adopted on March 26, 2022”.
War of nerves
In June 2023, Anticor had retroactively lost its approval following a judgment by the Paris administrative court. The court had considered that the government’s 2021 decree was tainted by“an error of law”The court affirmed, following internal divergences in the governance of Anticor (two dissidents of the association had mentioned donations made to Anticor, in 2018 and 2020, by the businessman Hervé Vinciguerra, close to the former socialist minister Arnaud Montebourg), that there existed “a doubt about the disinterested and independent character” of the association.
Between legal proceedings and a new request for approval, Anticor had since tried in vain to recover this precious sesame. In December 2023, when Elisabeth Borne was leaving Matignon, the government had not responded to the association’s request, which was tantamount to an implicit refusal. Bis repetita in July 2024: Mr. Attal had adopted the strategy of silence.
Read the article | Article reserved for our subscribers Anticor approval: the fight for transparency and reform continues
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But on August 9, Anticor obtained a first legal victory: the Paris administrative court suspended Mr. Attal’s implicit refusal, while ordering the resigning Prime Minister to “reconsider the request” and to provide reasons for his decision within fifteen days. However, Mr. Attal did not do so.
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