2023-04-24 15:11:00
PWhy did a nascent association and another, with no apparent link to the objective of the Marianne fund, receive the two largest grants awarded by this fund? What was the role of Marlène Schiappa’s cabinet in these decisions?
To answer these questions, Claude Raynal, Chairman of the Finance Committee and Senator for Haute-Garonne, announced this Monday, April 24, during a conference in the Senate, his intention to propose, next week, the creation of a commission of inquiry.
The decision would not be insignificant because each group has the right to create only one commission of inquiry per parliamentary year – in 2022, the Socialist, Ecologist and Republican group used its drawing rights to investigate “media concentration in France “.
Content with no real link to secularism
During his press briefing, Claude Raynal may have weakened Marlène Schiappa’s line of defense. Since the start of the affair, she has insisted that she has not been directly or indirectly associated with the selection of the files. Really ? According to the senator, of the six members of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR), which awarded the grants, three are part of the cabinet of the Secretary of State in charge of the Social and Solidarity Economy. and community life. One is a special adviser, another is an adviser and the last is his chief of staff. For none of the seventeen subsidies paid within the framework of the Marianne fund, the decision is motivated.
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At the end of March, the magazine Marianne and the broadcast The Eye of 8 p.m. of France 2 revealed that the Marianne fund, endowed with 2 million euros and intended to “promote republican values and fight separatist discourse” after the assassination of Samuel Paty, would have essentially benefited a few associations, close to the majority, and producing content with no real link to secularism.
Following these revelations, socialist senators called for the opening of a “Flash” parliamentary inquiry. It was to present the first results of the work of this “Flash” commission that the socialist senator returned to the suspicions of embezzlement targeting two associations, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM) and Rebuild the commmon.
Two problematic grants
The senator specified that, out of 71 files submitted to the CIPDR, which launched this fund, 47 had been deemed eligible and 17 had finally received grants. Claude Raynal strongly insisted on the fact that 15 of the 17 subsidized associations met the expected requirements. He also recalled that the Marianne fund was endowed with 2.5 million euros, and that four associations shared 1.3 million euros, each with an individual amount of between 292,000 and 355,000 euros.
The USEPPM received an amount of 355,000 euros. This is the largest endowment of the Marianne fund. However, according to the senator, the purpose of this association “does not appear to be clearly linked to the objectives of the fund”, and the USEPPM “does not mention, in its application file, any experience in fight against radicalization”.
In addition, Claude Raynal pointed out, in the case of this association, a summary project in the application file. Then, once selected, the association failed to report its action to the CIPDR, despite the requests of the latter, which resulted in it not receiving the balance of its grant.
Claude Raynal also indicated that the CIPDR had launched, in March 2023, a control of the action carried out by the USEPPM, for lack of being able to control in a detailed manner the expenses of the association, which does not have internal financial control.
Multiple reminders
As for the other association in question, Rebuild the common, it received, from the Marianne fund, 330,000 euros. In this case, the first element that caught the attention of the Chairman of the Finance Committee is the fact that this association was created on October 29, 2020, i.e. six months before the start of the call for projects from the Marianne fund, which started in April 2021.
The senator from Haute-Garonne also points to the fact that this association would have received another subsidy at the same time, up to 39,000 euros, “for a reason not specified in the documents”, which could be, according to him, “a form of support at the launch of the association.
But the restitution of the exchanges between Rebuild the common and the CIPDR “testifies […] many production alerts [de l’association], revealing problematic elements in contradiction with the signed agreement and the assigned objectives”. Despite multiple reminders, the full grant was paid.
It now remains to be seen whether the senators will endorse Claude Raynal’s proposal. “I do not prejudge the decision of an institution that I respect and of which I am a member”, concluded the elected official.
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