At the MoDem trial, the failing memory of Michel Mercier

2023-11-06 22:54:35
Former minister and former treasurer of the UDF and then the MoDem, Michel Mercier, arrives for the start of his trial at the Paris judicial court in Batignolles, a district in the north of Paris, on October 16, 2023. JULIEN DE ROSA / AFP

“I’m old and deaf, I accept that, but when you ask a question, I try to be specific. » The good nature displayed until now at the bar by Michel Mercier, 76 years old, former minister of justice, long treasurer of the UDF then of the MoDem, is cracking somewhat in the face of the rolling fire of questions from the public prosecutor, Monday November 6 in front the 11th chamber of the Paris criminal court, at the trial of the affair of the parliamentary assistants of centrist MEPs.

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In his functions as treasurer, but also as a “third party payer” responsible for managing, from the envelope paid by the European Parliament, the payment of the salary and social security contributions of the assistants of numerous MEPs, Michel Mercier is, in principle, one of the executives best informed on the affair which earned him, as well as ten other personalities, to be warned in this file. Most of the contracts of employees of François Bayrou’s movement from 2005 to 2009 bear his signature, as do the supporting documents requested by the European Parliament for the employment of assistants to MEPs.

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But according to him, this is not the case. “The treasurer does not do the accounting”, immediately specifies the former Minister of Justice, already sentenced, on January 26, in another case of embezzlement of public funds, to three years suspended prison sentence and five years of ineligibility. He had employed his wife and children as parliamentary assistants during his mandate as senator, without being able to provide proof of their work.

Forgetting accumulates

With choppy diction which sometimes makes it difficult to understand, Michel Mercier assures that “never ever” he did not take care of the selection of MEPs’ parliamentary assistants or that he “no memory” for having held job interviews for party officials. he is also “unable to remember” documents that he signed, his signature sometimes being delegated to other administrative officials.

Over the course of his hearing, the omissions accumulate. “What can you tell us” readjustments of the missions of MoDem permanent staff over the course of their successive contracts?, questions the prosecution. ” Nothing “, responds point-for-tat the former minister. Then questioned about a MoDem employee, he said he did not “no memory” of him.

The order for reference highlights the cases of several permanent staff whose contracts were made part-time, at the very time when they were simultaneously signing a contract also part-time with a MoDem MEP. The prosecution sees this as proof of the existence of a mechanism intended to finance salaries from European funds allocated to the employment of assistants, which the 11 defendants and their lawyers dispute step by step. “What guides us is the need, has it diminished? In which case we can go part-time”assures Michel Mercier, who ends up getting annoyed by the insistence of the prosecution. “I answered you, it may not be the answer you were expecting but it’s the one I wanted. »

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