The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has opened two investigations into the McKinsey firm for favoritism and about Emmanuel Macron’s 2017 and 2022 campaign accounts. “Let all the light be shed”, he replied, Friday, November 25.
[Mis à jour le 25 novembre 2022 à 15h30] The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) opened, at the end of October, a judicial investigation for suspicions of illegal financing of the 2017 and 2022 electoral campaigns of Emmanuel Macron in connection with the consulting firm McKinsey. At the same time, the PNF opened a new investigation for “favoritism” and “concealment of favouritism”, indicated The Parisian, Thursday, November 24. “Let all the light be shed and all the transparency be made,” replied Emmanuel Macron, on the move, Friday, November 25. “I want justice to do its job in the normal way,” he added, in remarks reported by France info. “It’s normal for justice to do its job, it does it freely […] The 2017 campaign accounts have already been submitted and verified as for the other candidates”, declared the President of the Republic who recalled that the investigation did not relate to him specifically.
Indeed, in his press release published Thursday, November 24, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office does not appoint Emmanuel Macron. Thus, the first investigation opened relates to “the conditions of intervention of consulting firms in the electoral campaigns of 2017 and 2022”, and has as charges “non-compliant keeping of campaign accounts” and “minoration of elements accountants in a campaign account”. Another was opened for “favouritism” and “concealment of favoritism” vis-à-vis the McKinsey firm. The investigating judges will 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.
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 to the Élysée?
Friday, November 25, Emmanuel Macron, questioned on the McKinsey case, said: “It’s normal for justice to do its job, it does it freely”, reports BFM-TV. The president recalled not being at the heart of the investigation and insisted that his campaign accounts had already been looked at. “I want justice to do its job in the normal way,” he added. The day before, in a press release, the Élysée had indicated that 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.”
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. Some forces or former McKinsey consultants had also worked on behalf of Emmanuel Macron during the presidential campaign in 2017, as revealed The world.