Paris (AFP)

Francois Bayrou was heard Friday at the Paris court in the case of assistants MEPs MoDem, a hearing that could earn him an indictment and weaken his position in the presidential majority.

The president of the MoDem, 68, arrived shortly before 09H30 in court, accompanied by his lawyer, to be heard by Judge Charlotte Bilger, in charge of this investigation which shake for several weeks the centrist party.

A dozen leaders of the movement have already been indicted since mid-November in this case, including former MEP Sylvie Goulard, former Minister of Justice Michel Mercier or the party's financial director Alexandre Nardella .

The vice-president of MoDem Marielle de Sarnez, heard on Wednesday, was indicted for "embezzlement of public funds" for the contract of a former assistant. For five other suspect contracts, the judge placed her under the intermediate status of assisted witness.

The judges are trying to determine whether parliamentary assistants, who also worked part-time for the MoDem, actually performed the tasks financed by European credits or if this assembly was used to fraudulently finance the payroll of the party.

The investigation, entrusted to judges Charlotte Bilger, Bénédicte de Perthuis and Patricia Simon, concerns the 2009-2014 legislature but also, to a lesser extent, the previous legislatures. At this point, nine former MEP MoDem are in the sights of justice.

François Bayrou, who has always denied any system of fictitious jobs, relativized last week the prosecution of executives of his party. "Everyone is indicted or almost in French political life," he said.

The collaborators worked "part-time" for the MoDem and "were paid for a fraction of the time by the European Parliament and the other fraction of the time by (the) movement". "What is wrong with that?" He added.

- "Admiration" -

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 (European Affairs) and Sylvie Goulard ( armed).

This case, added to the controversy over services performed for an American think tank, has also cost Sylvie Goulard its place in the new European Commission, refused in October by MEPs.

Heard on September 11 by the Central Office for Combating Corruption and Financial and Tax Crimes (OCLCIFF), Bayrou insisted that the accusations against the MoDem came from people in conflict with the party, evoking a context of political revenge.

"Alexandre Nardella (treasurer of the party, Ed) had taken the initiative to go to see each of the assistants who were also employees to ask them to report to him if they noticed a change in the effective distribution of their working time", he stressed.

"That is to say, they had to inform him if they found that they worked more for one or the other of the two functions than what was planned," said the centrist leader. , denying any misappropriation of public funds for the benefit of the MoDem.

The indictment of the mayor of Pau, who has made exemplary a battle horse, could question the balance of the majority, while relations between LREM and Bayrouist troops remain contrasted, even conflicting with of the municipal campaign.

"François Bayrou has devoted a good part of his political life to advance the issue of probity in political life, it is an inherent part of his political fight," said Friday the delegate general of LREM, Stanislas Guerini, saying to maintain his "trust" and "admiration".

The MoDem is not the only training in the lens of justice for supposedly fictitious jobs in the European Parliament. Similar investigations have thus been opened for the insubordinate France (LFI) and for the National Front (FN), in which some twenty people, including Marine Le Pen, have been indicted.

© 2019 AFP