Reacting to the new twist in the McKinsey affair, the Elysée felt that justice should investigate “in complete independence”.
[Mis à jour le 24 novembre 2022 à 22h25] After the new revelations on the McKinsey affair, the Élysée ended up reacting a few hours later. The Presidency of the Republic then affirmed, as reported The Parisian, having “taken note of the communication from the national financial prosecutor’s office concerning the opening of two judicial inquiries following in particular complaints from elected officials and associations”. Right in his boots, the presidential palace was content to say that “it is up to justice to conduct these investigations in complete independence”.
Earlier in the day, we learned that the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had initiated a judicial investigation in October for “favouritism” and “illegal election campaign financing” concerning the links between the American consulting firm and Emmanuel Macron in 2017 , according to information published by The ParisianNovember 24, 2022. This is the first investigation targeting the President of the Republic and the subject is sensitive, especially since in March 2022 the publication of a report by the Senate pointing to a growing recourse, almost systematic and costly from government to private firms, including McKinsey, had agitated the political class.
The opening of the investigation is in fact the extension of the procedure launched on March 31, still by the PNF, for “aggravated laundering of tax fraud”. Elements discovered or confirmed during the investigations, in particular existing links between the entourage of Emmanuel Macron and the McKinsey firm, prompted the prosecution to extend its research to the two new charges.
The links between Emmanuel Macron and McKinsey scrutinized
While the report of the Senate commission of inquiry, dated March, points to the use of several consulting firms, it is on the McKinsey company that attention has been focused. And for good reason, according to the data in the report, the State has used the services of the American firm for several hundred thousand euros in 2021 alone. A single contract concerning an audit on “the evolution of the profession teacher” cost 500,000 euros to the Ministry of Education, takes as an example The Parisian. Such sums disbursed to a single company have prompted investigators to ask themselves a question: was the conclusion of so many contracts with McKinsey the counterpart of political financing and perhaps that of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign?
The links between the Head of State and the consulting firm are obvious. Transfers of forces have even been observed with McKinsey employees who occupy internal positions in the presidential party La République en Marche and others who work in ministerial cabinets, reports the Ile-de-France daily. Certain forces or former McKinsey consultants had also worked on behalf of Emmanuel Macron during the presidential campaign in 2017, as revealed The world.