Allusions without any basis. The Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life Marlène Schiappa reacted this Friday after a week of controversy around the “Marianne Fund”, subsidies granted to associations to fight against radicalization and their legitimacy .
“Wrongly asserting that it was an ad hominem decision by Marlène Schiappa is totally false and denied by the procedure, just as it is totally false to claim that it would be friends of the minister”, insists the press release published by the Secretary of State.
In total, 17 associations have received grants, and “measures have been taken vis-à-vis the only structure that has not been satisfactory,” says the press release. The general inspection of the administration was seized just like the public prosecutor of Paris to “shed all the light” on this affair, recalls the Secretary of State.
A fund created after the assassination of Samuel Paty
The creation of this fund dates back to April 2021. At the time Minister Delegate for Citizenship, Marlène Schiappa announced the birth of a “Marianne fund”, to support those involved in the fight against radicalisation. A decision taken following the assassination of Samuel Paty, in October 2020. “With 2.5 million euros, we can do a lot of things to defend the values of the Republic”, had then declared the minister on BFM TV.
In a press release, the family of the history and geography professor said they were “particularly shocked by the recent revelations of France 2, concerning the questionable use of grants dedicated to the Marianne Fund, (…), and the lack of control of the use of these subsidies”. “The name of Samuel Paty can in no way and in no way be the instrument of such acts,” she added.
An opaque list of beneficiaries
A joint investigation by the weekly Marianne and France 2 broadcast on March 29 described a management of the money of this fund which would be opaque, with a list of beneficiaries kept secret.
According to the investigation, the association that would be its main beneficiary, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), would have used this fund for a website and publications on social networks very little followed, but also and above all to pay two of its former leaders.
One of these two ex-leaders is Mohamed Sifaoui, director of communication for the SCO football club in Angers, but also a journalist and political refugee in France after having escaped four attacks in Algeria in the 1990s. He announced on Twitter “legal proceedings against all those” who defame him.