“Finding myself in front of you was not the reward I expected”

Narrative On the second day of his trial, Wednesday, the former boss of EDF defended himself from any favoritism, presenting himself as the target of dirty tricks from the CAC 40.

“The note you are reading was written to harm me by barbouzes. » It did not take long for the dirty tricks of the CAC 40 of the 2010 decade to rise to the surface during the trial for “favoritism and concealment” of Henri Proglio, ex-boss of EDF, and twelve of its former consultants, which opened on May 21. The first defendant questioned, Henri Proglio, straight in his anthracite suit, a few folded sheets placed in front of him, launched into a presentation on the history of EDF, “world reference in nuclear power born in 1946 from the vision of the Gaullists and communists who thought that energy was essential to recover and reindustrialize France”when the president of the court, Benjamin Blanchet, questioned him about an eleven-page memo seized during the searches.

“Distilling negative information”

Remember that the national financial prosecutor’s office, represented by its deputy prosecutor Sébastien de La Touanne, accuses Henri Proglio of having signed 44 contracts for an amount of more than 21 million euros without competitive bidding. The memo is called: “Henri Proglio’s consultants”: “This memo indicates that you surrounded yourself with businessmen and consultants who were regularly mobilized to collect confidential information, promote your image and provide you with services of all kinds, relates the president. Thus, it is said that Jean de Belot (Editor’s note, former journalist also referred to court for a contract of 840,000 euros, seated in the front row) would have been mainly used to distil negative information in the editorial offices about your successor at the head of Veolia, Antoine Frérot…”

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“This note was commissioned by Anne Méaux [la papesse de la communication qui a plaidé coupable dans ce dossier, NDLR], who has a tenacious hatred for me since I separated from her when I was managing Veolia in 2004, Proglio replies. It was written by the company Axis [une société d’intelligence économique, NDLR] who I suspected of following me and making me listen to me at the start of my mandate at EDF. I filed a complaint, but the procedure yielded nothing. »

This clarification does not seem to disturb President Blanchet who continues.

– The note also says that Laïd Sammari [ancien journaliste également renvoyé, présent dans la salle, NDLR] would have been hired by you to destabilize Anne Lauvergeon [qui dirigeait le nucléariste Areva jusqu’en 2011] with journalists, and was then mobilized against Antoine Frérot. You know we don’t read this every day? – Fortunately, replies Henri Proglio. – As you say, fortunately. – All this is absurd, but coming from this office it hardly surprises me.

1 million euros, an office, a company car

The name of Laïd Sammari, whose hearing is expected next week, had already been mentioned by the president through his notebooks found during the investigation. Spiral notebooks in which the EDF consultant recorded his meetings with advisors from the Elysée, bosses of public companies, ministers, whom he questioned about their possible support for the renewal of Henri Proglio at the helm. head of EDF in 2014 (which ultimately did not take place).

It was Me Jean-Pierre Mignard, Henri Proglio’s lawyer, who stood up first to defend the “important networks” by Laïd Sammari, who received one million euros in four years, in addition to an office provided to him and a company car: “Mr Sammari often called us criminal lawyers and he knew everything about everything about our cases.” We wondered what use EDF management could find in employing, two days a week, a former journalist specializing in legal files when Me Emmanuel Marsigny, who defends Laïd Sammari, denounced the use made by the president of the court of Axis report, “a collection of rubbish”, he judged. “EDF also ordered reports from pharmacies”replies President Blanchet.

“Defend my honor”

The hearing then becoming a little disjointed, we no longer know how the financial prosecutor came to question Henri Proglio on the contract for 336,000 euros signed to Claude Allègre, former Minister of Education to whom Maître Mignard, in spirit, attributes “a Fields medal” imaginary. “I saw him speaking on television to defend nuclear power after the Fukushima accidentexplains Henri Proglio, I called him immediately so that he could help us structure our approach to defending nuclear power”. No one in the room seems to note that the first contract signed by Mr. Allègre dates from June 30, 2010, eight months and eleven days before the Fukushima accident.

Before these discussions, Henri Proglio had explained that he had left Veolia ” The death in the soul “ after 37 years of good and happy service. “In 2009, Nicolas Sarkozy called me to tell me that he needed me. My proximity to Jacques Chirac was such that no one can suspect that I was appointed because of my political proximity to the former head of state.. If these consultants were hired, said Henri Proglio, who faces two years in prison and a 200,000 euro fine, it was in the company’s interest: “I had no personal relationship with any of them, I never tried to hide anything,” he assured. “I never imagined that as a reward for all this, I would find myself defending my honor in front of you,” he said repeatedly, his eyes red with suppressed tears.