The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has opened two investigations for “non-compliant keeping of campaign accounts” of 2017 and 2022 and “favoritism”, in connection with the consulting firm McKinsey. Without being named, Emmanuel Macron is concerned.
[Mis à jour le 25 novembre 2022 à 11h25] Two investigations were opened by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) at the end of October in the McKinsey case for “favoritism” and “non-compliant keeping of the electoral campaign accounts” of Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and in 2022 revealed The Parisian, Thursday, November 24. The judicial investigation, opened against X, must shed light on the accounts of Emmanuel Macron’s electoral campaigns, and in particular the role of the consulting firm McKinsey. In a press release published on the evening of November 24, the PNF indicated that it had opened an investigation for “non-compliant keeping of campaign accounts”, “minoration of accounting elements in a campaign account”, as well as for “favoritism” and ” concealment of favouritism”. The investigating judges are trying to find out if the McKinsey firm participated in the financing of the political campaign of the head of state in exchange for public contracts concluded with the government.
“It is up to justice to conduct these investigations independently,” replied the Elysee in a press release, published later in the evening. Thus, the Presidency of the Republic communicated that it had “taken note of the communication from the national financial prosecutor’s office concerning the opening of two judicial inquiries”. “Let justice do its thing”, added Renaissance MP Prisca Thevenot, Thursday, November 24 on France info. “I am very clear. I defend the rule of law. Let the procedure be done. And we can then discuss again when the conclusions are made,” she said.
The opening of these two judicial inquiries is the result of a PNF investigation targeting McKinsey since March 31, 2022. The firm is suspected of “aggravated money laundering of tax fraud” after a Senate report which revealed that the company n had not paid corporate tax in France between 2011 and 2020. A report by the commission of inquiry had also pointed to the government’s increasing use of private firms during Emmanuel Macron’s first term. Several complaints from elected officials, individuals and associations led to the opening of these new investigations.
What reaction at the Élysée and in Macronie?
The Élysée remained silent for several hours after the revelations of the Parisian on the McKinsey case before making sober statements in a statement. The presidential palace said it had “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”. And to add that it “is up to the judiciary to conduct these investigations independently.” In March 2022, the start of the McKinsey affair, Emmanuel Macron was also content with a few statements to challenge all suspicions of favoritism. “We have the impression that there are tricks, that’s not true. No contract is signed in the Republic without respecting the rule of public procurement, that anyone has proof that there is manipulation put the contract in question in criminal proceedings”, had declared the head of state in the campaign, on the set of France 3.
The opening of an investigation for “non-compliant keeping of campaign accounts” is not excellent news for the executive, which risks being weakened with the opposition. However, in Macronie, executives believe that the case will fall like a puff given the rigor with which Emmanuel Macron would have kept his campaign accounts. Others consider that the surveys cannot “concern the 2022 campaign” with France info.
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 the Ministry of Education 500,000 euros, takes as an example The Parisian. Such sums, disbursed to a single company, have alerted investigators to a question: was the conclusion of so many contracts with McKinsey the counterpart of political financing and can -be that of Emmanuel Macron’s presidential campaign?
The links between the Head of State and the consulting firm are obvious. Transfers of forces have 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.