Paris (AFP)

François Bayrou, Marielle de Sarnez and Sylvie Goulard are summoned in December for a possible indictment in the case of allegedly fictitious jobs of assistants of MoDem europarlementaires, told Tuesday to AFP sources close to the case.

In total, about fifteen people - MEPs, parliamentary assistants and party officials - were summoned by the judges of the financial center of the Paris court, who have been investigating the case since July 2017, said these sources, confirming information from the world. .

Judges Charlotte Bilger, Bénédicte de Perthuis and Patricia Simon seek to determine whether MoDem parliamentary associates were paid by the public funds of the European Parliament when in fact they were assigned to other tasks for the centrist party.

The president of MoDem François Bayrou must be heard December 6, told AFP one of the sources close to the file. The auditions of Marielle de Sarnez, number two of the centrist party, and Sylvie Goulard, MEP from 2009 to 2017, are scheduled for the first week of December, says Le Monde.

"This is not because there is a convocation that there will be a decision of indictment," recalled Francois Bayrou, interviewed by the Republic of the Pyrenees, saying that these summons were part of "the following normal procedure ".

"I know that the accusations are unfounded and that the assistants were working for the MEPs (...) The important thing is to be able to prove what we are advancing." The reality, that proves itself and we have the good intention to do so, "he added.

The opening of a preliminary investigation by the Paris prosecutor's office in June 2017 led to the resignation of Bayrou from the post of Minister of Justice, as well as those of Marielle de Sarnez from the post of Minister of European Affairs and of Sylvie Goulard as Minister of the Armed Forces.

Two years later, this affair - as well as her role as adviser to an American think tank - also cost Sylvie Goulard her place in the new European Commission on October 10th.

Mrs Goulard had accepted this summer to pay back to the European Parliament 45,000 euros corresponding to eight months' salary of one of her assistants, Stéphane Thérou, for whom she could not provide "proof of work". On August 30, the European Parliament closed the case for his case.

© 2019 AFP