The campaign accounts committee has scrutinized the financing of the race for the Elysee Palace of all candidates. She pinpointed certain expenses, sometimes astonishing, which did not fit into this framework.
Eight months after the first round, the campaign accounts of presidential candidates have been approved this friday, opening the right to reimbursement by the State, with the exception of the candidate of the National Rally. With certain incongruities noted by the national commission of campaign accounts.
To start with Marine Le Pen. If her accounts have not been published, it is because the patron saint of RN deputies disputes the absence of reimbursement of her 12 buses flocked on two floors with the phrase “M la France”his campaign slogan and his photo, for an amount of 300,000 euros.
Social networks and “exceptional bonus” for Macron’s campaign
These vehicles allowed Marine Le Pen to be visible in the four corners of France by criss-crossing the French departments. But for the institution responsible for validating the campaign accounts, this “type of process constitutes an irregular expense” which cannot be reimbursed by the State.
Emmanuel Macronwho was not sanctioned in the context of the McKinsey affair despite the opening of two investigations by the national financial prosecutor’s office, was challenged their use of social media.
The Campaign Accounts Committee was also surprised to “the exceptional bonus” of 30,000 euros by Soazig de la Moissonnière, the president’s official photographer who had worked on his campaign poster.
The former party boss is not the only one to have been pinned down for expenses deemed far from a presidential campaign executive of John Lasalle. The former pillar of the National Assembly was not reimbursed “19 tickets to attend a rugby match” for an amount of 465 euros. The “electoral nature of the event has not been demonstrated by the candidate”, soberly advance the institution.
Coffee and Airbnb for Hidalgo and Jadot
Same penalty for Yannick Jadot: the ecologist will not be reimbursed for the costs of renting an Airnbnb apartment in Paris for its employees in Paris in the amount of 6,048 euros.
Anne Hidalgo was, she, sanctioned, for “coffee orders” of 1600 euros to his campaign HQ. The sum of 2239 euros “corresponding to an invoice for repairing damage” from one of the walls of his campaign headquarters will also not be taken into account.
Philippe Poutou will not be reimbursed 376 euros for “train trips” and a “hotel night” for “his bodyguard”. “There was no mention in his employment contract of the possibility of reimbursing these expenses”, emphasizes the committee.
Zemmour and “unproven” communication advice
Eric Zemmour is himself particularly reprimanded by the campaign accounts committee. Among his very numerous campaign expenses, there are thousands of wildly pasted posters.
As shown by the complaints lodged by local elected officials regarding the unauthorized use of the public domain and by certain owners of private premises, the effects of this poster campaign were still visible after October 1, 2021″, underlines the independent body.
13,000 euros were also spent “for unproven political communications adviceto a service provider who is also a political figure”. According to information from the Parisian, it would be the former Yellow Vest, Jacline Mouraud who slammed the door of Reconquest in the fall. The candidate also did not pay an invoice for a meeting room in Dijon for the sum of 1575 euros.
Also pinned for his daily participation in CNews seen as “a promotion of his personality” when he was not yet a candidate, the former journalist from Figaro receives a fixed penalty of 200,000 euros, a first.
Stickers and foreign languages for Mélenchon
Jean-Luc Melenchon has him printed over 1.2 million stickers, for the sum of 28,875 euros, to the chagrin of the campaign accounts committee. If the former candidate of insubordinate France “maintains that these stickers have, in the vast majority of cases, been used for better visibility during campaign events”, “this explanation is not likely to justify one so many”, judge the institution.
Insubordinate France has also has its program translated “into several foreign languages” for 5,398 euros, to the great astonishment of the commission which does not consider them as “an expense specifically intended for obtaining votes” for a French ballot.
