2017 campaign accounts: an association close to Mélenchon and its financial representative indicted

The People's Era association, logistics provider at the service of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and his financial agent were indicted in the spring in the investigation into his accounts for the 2017 presidential election, AFP learned from a close source. of the file, confirmed by a judicial source. Only the suspicions of "illicit loan of labor" were however retained by the examining magistrate against the association and Marie-Pierre Oprandi, also prosecuted for "use of forgery".

The magistrate at this stage has waived the prosecution of the main aspects of the investigation, opened in particular to examine suspicions of "aggravated fraud", "breach of trust" or "illegal campaign financing".

For these other offenses, the association and the agent are under the intermediary status of assisted witness.

These indictments, on March 29 for the association, and on April 29 for Marie-Pierre Oprandi, are the first pronounced in the two investigations opened in 2018 on the use of public funds by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Four employees not paid by the campaign or the party

For three years, the leader of La France Insoumise, again a candidate for the 2022 presidential election, has been contesting any infringement. He denounces the "attack on the separation of powers" constituted by these inquiries, one on his campaign accounts, the other on the employment of his assistants when he was a MEP.

The "illicit loan of manpower" is an offense resulting from the Labor Code, generally found in IT or building subcontracting, which prohibits two entities from entering into a contract aimed exclusively at lending personnel for profit. . He is punished by a maximum of two years in prison and a fine of 30,000 euros, increased to 150,000 euros for a legal person. The magistrate believes that the four employees of the era of the people, founded in 2015 by loyalists of Jean-Luc Mélenchon to ensure in particular the logistics of his meetings and rent him computer equipment, should have been paid by the candidate's campaign or the party. Three employees of the association, including now LFI deputies Mathilde Panot and Bastien Lachaud, were at the same time members of the campaign team.

"It is a minimum indictment, which does not hold and does not worry me"

The National Campaign Accounts Commission (CNCCFP), responsible for validating the reimbursement of candidates' expenses with public money, had noted a difference between the salaries paid and the amounts invoiced to the representative, for a total of 152,688 euros.

She then refused to reimburse the margin thus made by the non-profit association.

The defense retorts that it was required by the electoral code to follow the market prices, that it followed the scales of the temping agencies and, failing that, it could have been accused of under-invoicing constituting a disguised gift.

The same practice had also been validated by the CNCCFP for legislative 2017, it is also argued.

"It is a minimum indictment, which does not hold and does not worry me," reacted to AFP the president of the People's Era, Bernard Pignerol, special adviser to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. "Everything else fell, but the file had to be saved," he quipped.