"I officially, solemnly request that there be an audit of the nation's accounts to be done before the presidential election to take stock of what was done at the time of the Covid crisis" and the spending announced in recent months by the government as the energy check, said the president of Hauts-de-France on CNews and Europe 1.
He thus wishes to know "the state of the country and the commitments that we are making today because we will have to assume the bad checks of Emmanuel Macron" in the event of victory on April 24, he said. he adds.
Government spokesman Gabriel Attal responded to him on CNews by recalling the audit carried out by the Court of Auditors at the request of François Hollande in 2012 after his victory against Nicolas Sarkozy on the spending of the previous government.
"The audit which had been rendered by the Court of Auditors had been of great severity with the government in which Xavier Bertrand and Valérie Pécresse had participated", explained Mr. Attal.
"This report showed that they had exploded the deficits and the debt", he added.
According to him, the government asked "from this summer" to the Court of Auditors "for an audit before the presidential election. We did not wait for Mr. Bertrand's proposal to do so," he said, recalling that 'a 100 billion euro stimulus plan has been launched to restore the economy after the health crisis.
On Twitter, the Deputy Minister in charge of Public Accounts Olivier Dussopt also reacted, qualifying Mr. Bertrand's proposal as "old string".
"The audit is permanent, it is parliamentary control," he added.
© 2021 AFP