It is a case that shakes the government, to the point that the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the head of the LFI deputies Mathilde Panot announced, this Friday April 14, to seize the public prosecutor on the “Marianne fund” against separatism , after accusations of embezzlement over the use of allocated grants. The Express takes stock of the controversy.
What is the “Marianne fund”?
Created after the assassination of Samuel Paty, professor of history and geography beheaded on October 16, 2020 by a radicalized young man, the “Marianne fund” aims to finance associations which fight against separatist discourse, in particular online. On the initiative of Marlène Schiappa, then Minister Delegate for Citizenship in April 2021, this fund is endowed with 2.5 million euros, and 17 structures are designated to benefit from it.
Why is it at the heart of a controversy?
On March 29, France 2 and Marianne reveal, after four months of investigation, that the main beneficiary of the “Marianne fund”, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), would have used the money from the fund – 355,000 euros – to produce very little followed online content (13 videos on YouTube, the majority of which do not exceed 50 views, and an Instagram account, with only 138 subscribers), but also to pay two of its ex-leaders. However, this last point would be in contradiction with the statutes of the association, explains Cyril Fergon, lawyer for the other members of the office, who claim to have never been informed of this allocated public money or of its methods of use.
The association, which was committed “to deploy multimedia content, a positive message of re-enchantment of the values of the Republic and another in deconstruction of the violent attacks suffered by the Republic”, was directed at the time by Mohamed Sifaoui, a political refugee journalist in France. In a press release dated April 12, the latter denies having received such sums, and claims to have initiated legal proceedings which will allow “to restore the truth”.
On April 12, an investigation by Mediapart adds, and reveals that “another structure received more than 300,000 euros when it had just been created and had no known activity”. The association in question, Rebuild the common, saw its statutes registered on October 29, 2020, thirteen days after the assassination of Samuel Paty. The investigative media claims that Rebuilding the Common “broadcast political content against opponents of Emmanuel Macron during the presidential and legislative campaigns”. The association published 57 videos on YouTube, from January 2022 to August 2022, where it frontally attacks political opponents of the President of the Republic. However, it is forbidden to use public means to influence the outcome of an election.
The president of the association, Ahlam Menouni, explained that she wanted to fill a “lack in the republican associative ecosystem, which is too partisan and above all disconnected from youth”. Its co-founder, the writer Johann Margulies, is a supporter of the Republican Spring. The political movement ensured, in a statement broadcast on Wednesday evening, have no connection with this association, and have “in no way [été] partner or even informed, directly or indirectly, of the terms and conditions for the allocation of this fund and its beneficiaries”.
What does Marlène Schiappa answer?
Asked by Mediapart, the firm of Marlène Schiappa indicated that “the minister was not part of the selection committee and did not intervene in it”. In a statement published on April 7, the latter was already contesting the accusations. “Wrongly asserting that it was an ad hominem decision by Marlène Schiappa is totally false and denied by the procedure, just as it is totally false to claim that it would be friends of the minister”, he wrote. And to continue: “Following controls planned from the launch of the fund – on the use of the funds, sixteen of the seventeen winning associations justify their proper use.”
Towards the opening of an investigation?
For their part, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the head of deputies LFI Mathilde Panot announced to seize the public prosecutor. “The facts related, if proven, are extremely serious” because “likely to characterize the criminal offense of embezzlement of public funds but also other offenses”, writes the mayor of Paris in a letter sent to Matignon. “Several videos, which deliberately discredit elected officials of the Republic, would be financed by the ‘Marianne fund’. I am one of these elected officials”, adds the elected socialist.
The Paris prosecutor’s office indicated on Friday that a report under article 40 of the code of criminal procedure by Christian Gravel, president of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR), was being analyzed, before a possible opening of an investigation.
RN deputies also called on Thursday for the creation of a parliamentary commission of inquiry. “These accusations are extremely serious and raise questions about the role of Marlène Schiappa in this affair when she claimed in June 2022 to have personally validated, with her cabinet, the choice of beneficiaries and the breakdown of subsidies”, estimated the RN group in a statement.