Lille (AFP)

The President LREM of the National Assembly, Richard Ferrand, fourth character of the state, was auditioned Wednesday by the justice in Lille for suspicion of illegal taking of interests in the real estate business Mutuelles de Bretagne, an appointment waited for months and whose relatives have worked to minimize the scope.

"Mr. Ferrand is heard since this morning by the investigating judges in charge of the judicial investigation of Mutuelles de Bretagne," a judicial source told AFP, confirming information from La Voix du Nord.

After a first ranking without follow-up of a complaint from the association Anticor in October 2017, "we are witnessing the logical follow-up of the procedure, with a hearing that is currently taking place in Lille, where the file has been disoriented", said on his side to AFP his entourage, stating that Mr. Ferrand approached "very serenely".

According to the same source, it is pointed out that "the second complaint lodged by Anticor, with a civil party being brought before another court and then disoriented, bears on the same basis, for the same facts, without new elements and by the same plaintiff".

The free hearing of the Speaker of the National Assembly - that parliamentary immunity does not prevent - could last all afternoon, or overflow in the evening, we learned from a source close to the file. In front of the court of Lille, the media were present in number, found a journalist of the AFP.

The affair of Mutuelles de Bretagne had led this faithful of the first hour of Emmanuel Macron to leave the government in June 2017. Just appointed Minister of Cohesion of the territories, he had been pinned by The Chained Duck who had revealed that in 2011 the Mutuelles de Bretagne, which he then ran, had decided to rent commercial premises belonging to his partner. Mr Ferrand disputes any irregularity.

The Brest public prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation in June 2017, dismissed in October. He then relied on the statute of limitations in the case of a possible wrongful taking of interest and found that the breaches of trust and fraud were "not constituted".

First president of the group of LREM deputies, Richard Ferrand took over from François de Rugy as President of the Assembly in September 2018.

- "Of course, he can stay at his post" -

Richard Ferrand had warned half word that he would not resign in case of indictment.

"Parliament has its independence, so parliamentarians do not have to be in the hands of the judiciary," he said, noting that a "number of MPs indicted" continued to "exercise their mandate ".

Questioned Wednesday at the end of the Council of Ministers, the government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye refused any "comment before knowing the subject of this summons".

"This appointment should have taken place a year ago but Mr. Ferrand had managed to gain some time by disorienting his record in Lille." It now wants him to explain the facts that are alleged and which are not prescribed, "said for its part to AFP the president of Anticor, Jean-Christophe Picard.

Several members of the majority supported him. Thus, Bruno Bonnell (LREM) "does not doubt his honesty" and, according to him, "the truth will come out serenely". "Of course, he can stay at his post," he said.

A possible indictment would have "no impact", added to the AFP Alain Tourret (LREM), a lawyer by profession. According to him, however, there is "no case" of indictment of a President of the Assembly.

Richard Ferrand "is presumed innocent" and "when he is" indicted, "he would always be presumed innocent," reacted for his part Sebastien Chenu, spokesman for the National Rally on BFMTV. "Let justice do its job (...) This case, it was bound to come out one day, it comes out today, well, I was going to say + wait and see +", he added.

bur-reb-jpa-erd / rl / sd

© 2019 AFP