Searches took place on Monday, December 5, in several homes and workplaces of the deputy of the National Rally (RN) Edwige Diaz, as part of an investigation by the European public prosecutor’s office for suspicion of fictitious employment.
“I can confirm that there are ongoing searches in two of my Girondin homes as well as at the departmental office of the RN, at the parliamentary office and at my office at the Assembly”said Edwige Diaz, contacted by Agence France-Presse (AFP) after revelations from Mediapart and of Release.
“The European Public Prosecutor’s Office has been leading a preliminary investigation in France since July 2021” pour “embezzlement of public funds, complicity and concealment”based on “suspicions of fictitious employment of European parliamentary assistant” in « 2018 et 2019 », said the prosecution in a press release. He says he was seized “in July 2021 by the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office, on the basis of a report from the Anticor association”involving « Jacques Colombier [ex-eurodéputé RN] and Edwige Diaz »used by him.
The investigation was entrusted to the Financial Investigation Service. MP RN explained that Jacques Colombier had been placed in police custody and that searches concerning him had also been carried out.
“A political settling of scores”
“It’s a political settling of scores”she said, ensuring that she had worked well for Jacques Colombier “from April 2018 to June 2019” as a local parliamentary assistant who “accompanied him on his travels, managed his social networks” and organized “visits to the European Parliament”. It involves a “responsible for Anticor” in Gironde, “David Poulain”candidate for municipal elections in 2020 in Ambarès-et-Lagrave, affirming that the latter had requested an agreement from the RN for these elections, which the party would have refused.
“There was never an agreement or a proposal”challenged David Poulain, claiming to have met the elected RN at the time “as part of the” yellow vests “”, of which he was a local representative. He argued that his suspicions were supported by “Testimonies from activists, local RN officials and three co-elected Mme Diaz on the same list at [élections] regional ».
On June 17, 2021, the head of Anticor had sent a letter on behalf of the association to the Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office in which he was surprised at a “M’s hyperactivityme Diaz », “departmental secretary” you RN, “trainer” et “de facto business manager of two establishments”considering that she had “little room for a parliamentary attaché job”. Anticor then also formulated the hypothesis of a “elevator return” by Edwige Diaz in 2021, with “the appointment of his former employer”Jacques Colombier, “as head of the regional list in the Dordogne (…) in defiance of two departmental officials of the RN “.
The MP then criticized a report “a few days from the regionals”. Monday, in a press release, Edwige Diaz and Jacques Colombier denounced “grotesque accusations (…) by David Poulain (…) and former regional councilors not reappointed”. “This file is rising because there are settling of accounts within the RN after [ce] top choice at the 2021 regionals »on the contrary supported David Poulain.
The RN has been the subject of several investigations and indictments for suspicions of fictitious jobs of European parliamentary assistants in recent years, and in return denounces “political manipulation”. In March 2018, the European Parliament assessed the damage at 6.8 million euros.