Parliamentary assistants affair: has François Bayrou, the new Prime Minister, been definitively exonerated?
Following his acquittal in February in the case of the European parliamentary assistants of the UDF and then the Modem, the prosecution lodged an appeal.
Justice has not yet completely finished with François Bayrou, appointed Prime Minister this Friday by the President of the Republic, replacing Michel Barnier.
On February 5, the Paris Criminal Court acquitted the 73-year-old president of the Modem in the European parliamentary assistants case , "giving the benefit of the doubt ." Considering that he was guilty of acts that "undermined the values of probity and exemplarity that he promotes ," the prosecution had requested a thirty-month suspended prison sentence , a 70,000 euro fine and a three-year suspended ineligibility sentence for complicity, by instigation, in the misappropriation of European public funds. The court therefore did not follow his lead.
Two other defendants – Stéphane Thérou and Pierre-Emmanuel Portheret – were also acquitted, while the eight others, including five former MEPs, were sentenced to suspended prison sentences of ten to eighteen months, fines of €10,000 to €50,000 and a two-year suspended ineligibility period. The UDF (now MoDem) was sentenced to a fine of €150,000, of which €100,000 was firm, and the MoDem to €350,000, of which €300,000 was firm.
11 disputed contracts
The High Commissioner for Planning, close to the President of the Republic, was suspected of having been the "main decision-maker" of a "fraudulent system" which consisted, between 2005 and 2017, of using European funds to pay parliamentary assistants who were, in reality, working for centrist organizations in France. At issue: 11 disputed contracts, for a total loss of 293,000 euros, according to the European Parliament, civil party.
This affair led Bayrou to hastily leave the Ministry of Justice on June 21, 2017, just one month after his appointment, following the opening of the investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office.
On February 8, a few days after the three acquittals, including that of Bayrou, the prosecution had nevertheless appealed . "The prosecution contests these acquittals, considers that the facts characterize the alleged offenses and that the evidence of these offenses is gathered against all the defendants ," declared the public prosecutor Laure Beccuau, in a press release. To date, the date of this new trial has not yet been set.
Updated on December 13, 2024 at 12:45 p.m.: modification of the title and the first paragraph, following the appointment of François Bayrou to Matignon.