François Bayrou, 71, current High Commissioner for Planning and close ally of Emmanuel Macron, will be tried for complicity in the embezzlement of European public funds, between June 2005 and January 2017, as president of the UDF party and then MoDem.
On 9 March, two investigating judges ordered a trial for the majority pillar and ten other party cadres at the time, including former Minister of Justice Michel Mercier and former MEP Jean-Luc Bennahmias, as well as the former UDF and its successor MoDem as legal entities.
They are suspected of having used EU funds to hire parliamentary assistants who would in fact have worked, at least partially, for the party.
The other defendants must appear mainly for embezzlement of public funds, complicity or concealment of this offence.
For the investigating judges, if these alleged offenses did not cause "personal enrichment of MPs or party executives", they "benefited" the former UDF and its successor the MoDem by reducing their payroll.
"Six years of investigation and investigation, so that, year after year, most of the accusations disappear. Nathalie Griesbeck, Robert Rochefort, Mrs. Goulard, Maud Gatel and two years after her death Marielle de Sarnez are cleared of the suspicion of embezzlement, "had reacted François Bayrou on Twitter at the time of dismissal.
"Only four or five contracts (part-time) dating from fifteen years ago remain in question", or "less than 2% of the payroll", he stressed.
The investigation began in March 2017 after the denunciation of a former elected National Front, Sophie Montel, on fictitious jobs of employees of nineteen of her colleagues of all sides.
These revelations had weakened the MoDem, President Macron's main ally, and led to the resignation of François Bayrou, then Minister of Justice, Marielle de Sarnez (European Affairs) and Sylvie Goulard, a month after their entry into government in 2017.
Similar investigations target the National Rally (RN), whose case is being closed, and La France insoumise (LFI).
© 2023 AFP