The good deals of Frédéric Chatillon with the RN in the European Parliament

2023-05-23 21:32:36

Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella had not said everything. In recent weeks, the two heads of the National Rally (RN) have claimed that the party no longer calls on the services of Frédéric Chatillon and Axel Loustau, former pillars of the Union Defense Group (GUD) and essential pawns in the political ascent of M^me Le Pen, since 2017 – with the exception of a communication company, e-Politic, of which the two men are minority shareholders. The truth is more complex.

In the European Parliament, a generous contract binds the RN to the company of Frédéric Chatillon’s wife, the latter being a shareholder and considered by French justice as “de facto manager of the company”. It is to this prepress company, called “Unanime”, that the European delegation of the RN entrusts its intense editorial activity, magazines and booklets printed in tens of thousands of copies.

in 2020 et 2021, Unanimous received 554,680 euros from the French delegation of the Identity and Democracy group (ID, far right). At the end of this “framework contract”, at the end of the mandate of MEPs, in 2024, the amount will have significantly increased: this type of contract provides for services and their prices, but no expenditure envelope, and therefore no ceiling.

A relationship of mutual dependence

This contract, of which the delegation knew nothing of the real beneficiary, Mr. Chatillon, was the subject of a call for tenders. It was signed, in 2020, after the trial of the “National Front campaign kits”: a case involving in particular the National Front (now RN), the company of Mr. Chatillon and that of his wife Sighild Blanc, in which the Lepenist formation was condemned on appeal, in March 2023, for concealment of abuse of social goods.

The market with the Chatillon couple adds to that which links the European RN group to e-Politic, another company of the “GUD Connection” – more than 1.3 million euros in two years. On the current term of office, these two contracts make the Chatillon spouses – who did not respond to requests from the Monde – the first beneficiaries of orders placed by political groups in the European Parliament, all tendencies and all countries combined. An old friend and business partner of Mr. Chatillon was also employed: it is Christophe Boucher, paid up to 68,000 euros over two years for the production of videos.

These multiple agreements – which are not illegal – confirm the relationship of mutual dependence between the far-right party and the former leader of the GUD, in exile in Rome and remained a figure of the revolutionary nationalist milieu – a neofascist current wanting to fight imperialism in particular “American-Zionist”.

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