MP Sophia Chikirou, close advisor to the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is the subject of several investigations. One is judicial and concerns his communication service activity during the 2017 presidential election. The others are journalistic and also concern his role in the Insoumise machine.
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Daily life The world made it appear a long file this October 3 and France Télévisions is preparing to broadcast on Thursday October 5 a report from Further investigation, dedicated to his journey. And both return to the judicial aspect. For Sophia Chikirou, the issue is thorny. The MP is suspected of having overcharged for the services of her communications company, which worked almost exclusively for LFI and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, then of having subsequently pocketed the difference.
According to The worldthis could soon lead to him being indicted for “ aggravated fraud “. The daily also lists several previous services subject to debate before returning to the Media affair, this online television initially set up by Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s entourage and which Sophia Chikirou directed for a few months. It ended badly and two complaints against X for theft were filed by the web television after Sophia Chikirou’s office was discreetly emptied when she left.
Outrage at rebellious France
Even if this information is not new, the investigations having been known for several years, the article from World is judged “ extremely burdensome » by an Insoumise executive who also questions the timing of these journalistic investigations while Jean-Luc Mélenchon returns to the forefront of the political scene with his new book which he begins promoting this week in Morocco. The president of the Insoumis group in the National Assembly, Mathilde Panot, speaks for her part of “ harassment » from the journalists of Complément d’investigation and would have ordered, according to the presenter of the show Tristan Waleckx, the LFI deputies not to respond to France 2.
Questioned this morning about the Chikirou file at the LFI weekly press briefing, Mathilde Panot put forward another explanation for the media spotlight on Sophia Chikirou. “ I find it deeply sexist that we regularly attack women politicians, she said. I myself was the subject of an article in the Parisian which was interesting, where after six years, it was explained that I was not the one who wrote my speeches. Okay, there you go, I don’t have anything else to say on this issue. »
Mathilde Panot’s response may seem surprising, but it mainly refers to the other side of the journalistic investigations into Sophia Chikirou: her influence at LFI and her behavior
The Chikirou method in question
The role and position of Sophia Chikirou are ambiguous. Officially, today she is only a simple deputy and leader of the Insoumis in Paris. But she remains very influential due to her proximity to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with whom The world gives him a complicated sentimental relationship. She advised him during his three presidential campaigns and his candidacy for the legislative elections in Paris was at the heart of a quarrel which still lasts between LFI and a fringe of the Socialist Party. One of his recent messages on social networks comparing the boss of the Communists Fabien Roussel to Jacques Doriot, an ex-communist who became a Nazi collaborator during the Second World War, also caused an open crisis within the New Ecological Popular Union and social (Nupes).
His “method” and his relationships with others are also debated. The worldAdditional investigation as well as articles from Release and of the Express relay particularly harsh remarks made by Sophia Chikirou, within the LFI group at the Assembly, but also during her experience at the Media. In the latter case, Sophia Chikirou would have made particularly homophobic speeches, which led Insoumis MP Andy Kerbrat to ask for clarification.
A silent and feared leader
Sophia Chikirou is choosing silence for the moment, just like Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which is not necessarily his habit. This is a particularity of the MP who hardly speaks to the media and is rarely cited in exchanges with the rebels. This is a paradox at LFI. Everyone knows her influence, but no one talks about her. The official explanation is that she does not have a prominent position in the movement’s organizational chart. The unofficial fact is that she is very feared, including among journalists who often hesitate to ask her. This could change in the coming days and even more so if she were to be indicted.