Like nothing ever happened. On the road to Berlin, where he was expected to have dinner with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, Monday, October 3, Emmanuel Macron let the revelations about his right arm, Alexis Kohler, flow. The all-powerful secretary general of the Elysee Palace was indicted on September 23 for illegally taking interests in the investigation into his links with the shipowner MSC, said Monday, the national financial prosecutor, Jean -François Bohnert, confirming information from France info.
This announcement came a few hours after the dismissal of the Keeper of the Seals, Eric Dupond-Moretti, before the Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR), for illegal taking of interests in administrative investigations carried out against magistrates.
Without a word, the Elysée simply broadcast the press release from Alexis Kohler’s lawyers, as if to dissociate the setbacks of the senior official from the presidency. “He strongly denies having committed any offence”they write, emphasizing that the facts in question may “go back more than ten years”. The number two of the Elysée has also been placed under the status of assisted witness for influence peddling in this case which targets his family ties with the shipowner run by his mother’s cousins.
At the Palace, we act as if what we modestly call “procedural twists and turns” didn’t change anything. “A normal day”depicted, on Monday, the deputy secretary general of the Elysée, Pierre-André Imbert.
At the chancellery, an adviser to Eric Dupond-Moretti noted that the appeal in cassation filed by the minister’s lawyers would make him win ” some months “. The routine continues, but from the outside, the situation appears politically incongruous, if not untenable.
From the “irreproachable Republic” to the “society of denunciation”
It contrasts with Emmanuel Macron’s original promise to turn the page on the scandals, he who, in March 2017, purposely set himself a “Irreproachable Republic”. As he went to Berlin for his first official trip in May 2017, a press release from the Elysée reiterated these commitments.
Very quickly, Emmanuel Macron had nuanced his speech. “We have stopped putting up with what once seemed almost normal, opacity, clientelism, conflicts of interest, everything that is an ordinary form of corruption that is almost impalpablehe told Congress in July 2017. However, no one is beyond reproach because if the requirement must be constant, if we are all custodians of the dignity that befits our functions and that each day obliges us, perfection does not exist. » Since then, the Head of State has rather exhausted “the society of denunciation” or « widespread suspicion.
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