The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation for “embezzlement of public funds” to verify that Caroline Magne, ex-wife of Éric Ciotti, has not held several jobs, including one at the National Assembly.
[Mis à jour le 22 novembre à 20h24] Caroline Magne, former companion of Éric Ciotti, did she benefit from embezzlement of public funds? The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) announced the opening of an investigation, Tuesday, November 22, in order to “verify the validity of the elements published in the press”. A preliminary investigation has thus been opened for “embezzlement of public funds”, “breach of trust” and “receiving”. In mid-November, The chained Duck had published an article indicating that Caroline Magne had accumulated three public jobs at the same time and that she had been paid for these different functions. Olivier Marleix, the president of the republican deputies, criticized the opening of this investigation. He believes that the PNF “seems to practice a double standard” and “looks like an exceptional jurisdiction for Les Républicains”, reports The world.
In an article, the newspaper Release had reported that Caroline Magne had held several public jobs for ten years, while being a collaborator of Eric Ciotti in the National Assembly. He had reacted in a press release, Tuesday evening, November 15, ensuring that Caroline Magne had worked alongside him “as a parliamentary collaborator in the constituency […] for a duration of 5h25 per week”. At the same time, according to him, Caroline Magne’s activities would not have exceeded 9 hours per week, thus ensuring that the accumulation of these activities did not “exceed 44 hours per week”. .
What jobs and public money are we talking about?
First press attaché to Christian Estrosi, then mayor of Nice, she became Éric Ciotti’s parliamentary attaché in 2007, when he was elected deputy. According The chained Duck, the young woman was also that year an employee of the Departmental Council of the Alpes Maritimes. Le Canard indicates that when Éric Ciotti took over the presidency, following the departmental elections of 2008, it was given a wider scope, with “extended powers”.
Caroline Magne was appointed Deputy Director of the Mayor of Nice during this period, then held a position of responsibility within the urban community of the agglomeration, until 2011. She left the cabinet of the Mayor of Nice in 2012, following the various occurred this year between Christian Estrosi and Éric Ciotti. In addition, between 2012 and 2014, she would have been employed by the diocese of Nice, then, between 2014 and 2016, by the municipality of La Colle-sur-Loup, as director general of services (DGS).
According information from Release, Caroligne Magne was paid nearly 20,000 euros per year for her position as parliamentary assistant to her husband, the first years of her mandate, part-time. She has accumulated several public jobs without having obtained authorization to combine them, which is however required by law. Other amount communicated by Release : the municipality of La Colle-sur-Loup paid him a salary of 67,000 euros gross per year.
What does Caroline Magne answer?
Her ex-husband, Éric Ciotti, reacted by publishing a press release, considering himself directly targeted and “basely attacked”. The deputy of the Alpes-Maritimes indicated that he had employed his wife as a parliamentary assistant “on a very part-time basis” and “in strict compliance with laws and regulations”. According to her calculations, the functions of parliamentary attaché, “in the constituency”, for which she was paid, reached “5h25 per week”. Employed at the municipality of La Colle-sur-Loup, she occupied a position on 5h25 per week”, he also specified.
Caroligne Magne, for her part, sent a document to Release, who was interested in combining his jobs, to provide elements of justification. The former wife of Éric Ciotti provided a certificate, signed by Jean-Philippe Chauvin, former finance assistant of La Colle-sur-Loup, assuring that Caroline Magne has “taken up her duties within the framework of the agreed non-full time , namely up to 40%, it being specified that the person concerned has also chosen, in agreement with the mayor of the municipality of La Colle-sur-Loup, to exercise in particular, in multiple employment, a job of occasional parliamentary collaborator”. But Release reports that “what is described does not correspond to reality”, specifying that “Caroline Magne has never held the position of “cabinet collaborator” of the mayor nor worked at 40%”. And “she did not obtain authorization to combine with her position as parliamentary collaborator either”. As also indicated Releaseagents who do not hold public law, such as those occupying the positions of DGS, are not authorized, since a decree of 2007, to hold political positions such as that of parliamentary collaborator.