The assembly finance committee, responsible for investigating public finances, gave its green light on Wednesday, February 19, to its president Eric Coquerel to initiate criminal proceedings against the secretary general of the Elysée Alexisé Kohler if he refuses to be heard again, Eric Coquerel told the press.
By 40 votes against 21, the deputies “approved my decision to write one last time to Alexis Kohler to ask him to go to the summons of the Commission, reminding him of the sorrows incurred,” Eric Coquerel told the press , in the four columns room in the Assembly. “If he does not answer very quickly, that is to say in early March, or responds in the negative, then I will call to the prosecutor to initiate a criminal appeal,” he added, adding that, By this vote, the deputies of the commission had given him their approval.
The finance committee obtained for six months the powers of a commission of inquiry and launched its work in early December to investigate “the causes” of “variation” and “differences in tax and budgetary forecasts” noted over the years 2023 and 2024.
Alexis Kohler brandishes the principle of the separation of powers
Alexis Kohler, closer collaborator of President Emmanuel Macron, did not respond to the Commission’s summons on February 11, invoking agenda problems, then “the principle of separation of powers”, according to two letters addressed to the president of The Commission, consulted by AFP. “Questions intended to obtain information concerning the modalities of exercise of the functions of the President of the Republic or his positions could not obtain an answer without damaging the principle of separation of powers,” writes the secretary general of the Elysée.
“If the President of the Republic cannot be heard by Parliament, this was the case several times for collaborators of the Elysée,” said Eric Coquerel.
According to an order of November 17, 1958, any person whose commission of inquiry has deemed the useful hearing is required to refer to the summons issued to him. The person who does not appear or refuses to deposit or take an oath before a commission of inquiry is liable to two years’ imprisonment and 7,500 euros fine.
Alexis Kohler already presented himself before commissions of inquiry, whether in 2019 for the one responsible for investigating the Benalla affair in the Senate, or in 2020 for that responsible for investigating the highway concessions, still in the upper room.