The President of the National Assembly Richard Ferrand estimated Wednesday that Emmanuel Macron had not undermined the separation of powers by clearing his right arm Alexis Kohler, suspected of illegal taking of interest, with what he described as an "employer certificate".
"We must not confuse the separation of powers, which is an absolute rule which means that the legislative, the executive and the judicial authority must have separate lives, not weigh on each other, and a kind of attestation of employer ”, reacted on RMC-BFMTV the elected official of Finistère, close to the president of the Republic.
Two diametrically opposed reports
In a note published Tuesday by Mediapart, the head of state ensures that Alexis Kohler - current secretary general of the Elysée - never intervened, at the time when he was his chief of staff in Bercy, in files linked to the Italian-Swiss shipowner MSC with which he had close professional and family ties.
It was because he was suspected of having concealed these links before the ethics committee that the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) had opened an investigation in June 2018 for illegal taking of interests. This investigation was finally closed without follow-up in August 2019, shortly after the note from the Head of State, addressed to Alexis Kohler, was sent by the latter's lawyer to the PNF.
State scandal. The Kohler case was closed after a letter from Emmanuel Macron via @Mediapart https://t.co/Jg3IViHJVc
- Michel Deléan (@michel_delean) June 23, 2020“While a damning first investigative report had been written by the police on June 7, 2019, a second report, saying the exact opposite, was signed on July 18, 2019. Meanwhile, on July 1, a certificate of 'Emmanuel Macron landed at the national financial prosecutor's office responsible for conducting the investigation,' writes Mediapart. For our colleagues, President Macron violated the separation of powers by intervening in "legal proceedings".
Nicole Belloubet is "unable to answer"
"We have a president who writes to absolve Mr. Kohler of his alleged faults and, in the process, an interim prosecutor who closes the case without action (…) we wonder about the relationship between justice and politics", commented on RFI the rebellious deputy Bastien Lachaud.
But for Richard Ferrand, the note is that of "an employer, minister, who says:" Here, my collaborator had made such a provision and I attest to it. It is done every day in France ". Questioned by France 2, Justice Minister Nicole Belloubet said she was “unable to answer,” having “no access to the file.” “I never interfere in individual cases,” she said.
Stanislas Guerini sees "not where the scandal is"
For the boss of LREM, Stanislas Guerini, interviewed on France Info, "Alexis Kohler is a great servant of the State, of total probity". Emmanuel Macron's mail "says one very simple thing: that Alexis Kohler has taken care of all the questions that could relate to this company with which he had family ties when he was in the office of the Minister of Economy, I don't see where the scandal is ”.
RN David Rachline reacted to him on Twitter: “Emmanuel Macron intervenes in legal proceedings to protect one of his relatives. The new world is strangely like the old, ”he quipped.
Politics
Conflicts of interest: The investigation against the secretary general of the Elysée Alexis Kohler closed without action
- Saint Nazaire
- Mediapart
- Conflict of interest
- Richard Ferrand
- Emmanuel Macron