Mine clearance operation by Emmanuel Macron’s team responding to criticism of the financing of his presidential campaign. Marine Le Pen and other candidates accuse the President of the Republic of campaigning with state resources. Those close to the head of state contest and assure him: expenses of president or candidate, everything will be perfectly separated.
The team ofEmmanuel Macron wanted to make things clear: a President of the Republic is not a candidate like the others. Wherever he goes, his security must accompany him and he must use the means of transport at the Élysée. But when it comes to the movement of a candidate, it’s his campaign who pays ultimately the transport bill. And the note can be salty.
Example: a presidential jet trip is 5,000 euros per hour, paid for by the State and then re-invoiced to La République en Marche. What makes Emmanuel Macron’s entourage say that the campaign of a president-candidate is much more expensive than that of its opponents.
What about the trips of recent weeks, which looked like a campaign in disguise, like that of January 10 in Nice on security? The entourage of the Head of State eludes: it will be up to the National Commission for Campaign Accounts to decide. As for the campaign team, no mixing of genres either, we are assured. Several advisers to Emmanuel Macron have left the Élysée to be rehired at HQ.
A specific case all the same: the official photographer of the Head of State, paid 50% by the residence and 50% by the campaign. Proof that not everything can be completely separated.