The news site Mediapart made revelations, in a survey published on Wednesday, about the use of the Marianne fund by the association “Rebuilding the Commons” its second biggest beneficiary. Created just after the launch of the Marianne fund, the association would have disseminated political content going against opponents of Emmanuel Macron during presidential and legislative campaigns.
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This is a second challenge for the Marianne fund, launched in April 2021 by Marlène Schiappa, then Minister Delegate for Citizenship. Started following the assassination of Samuel Paty, a history and geography professor beheaded by a radicalized Islamist, the fund was endowed with 2.5 million euros and aimed to “finance people and associations who will make speeches to promote the values of the Republic and to fight against separatist speeches, particularly on social networks and online platforms”.
The sequel after the ad
On March 29, the weekly ” Marianne and France 2 revealed in a joint investigation that the main beneficiary of the Marianne fund, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), would have used the money from the fund to pay two of its former leaders.
An ongoing investigation
Following the first revelations, one of the two ex-USEPPM leaders, Mohamed Sifaoui, announced on Twitter “legal proceedings against all those” who defame him. The communications director of the SCO Angers football club, also a political refugee journalist in France, confirmed in a press release issued on Wednesday that he had initiated legal proceedings and assured that the ” ongoing investigations will help to establish the truth ».
An investigation by the General Inspectorate of Administration (IGA) was indeed carried out by Secretary of State Sonia Backès on the management of the Marianne fund. “Following checks on the use (of grants paid)sixteen of the seventeen winning associations justify their proper use”replied Marlène Schiappa, Friday April 7, in a press release.
The boss of the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR) Christian Gravel, who had piloted the operation of the Marianne fund, also announced that he had made a report to the Paris prosecutor’s office to denounce the management of money by the USEPPM.
The sequel after the ad
330,000 euros of public money and aid of 29,250 euros
Second association financed by the Marianne fund to be called into question, “Rebuilding the commons” benefited from funding of 330,000 euros of public money, making it the second beneficiary of the project. She also received a direct grant of 29,250 euros from the CIPDR from 2020, when she had no activity at that time, ” to accompany the launch of this association »according to Christian Gravel with Mediapart.
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The association, aimed at “to promote republican universalism, secularism and the values of the Republic in the broad sense”, was created only two months before the launch of the Marianne fund’s call for projects and had no known activity when it applied.
The project she presented, selected from 47 competitors, was from “deploy a republican discourse adapted to the cultural codes and referents of 18-25 year olds on social networks and on the Web in the form of videos, visuals, memes, interviews, reports, documentaries and events”.
Links between the association and the selection committee
With our colleagues, the firm of Marlène Schiappa assured that “the minister was not part of the selection committee and did not intervene”. Christian Gravel for his part affirmed that the project of “Rebuilding the commons”was “convincing and perfectly structured”.
The sequel after the ad
The president of the association, Ahlam Menouni, explained that she wanted to fill a “missing in the republican associative ecosystem, too partisan and above all disconnected from youth”. Its co-founder, the writer Johann Margulies, is a supporter of the Republican Spring. The political movement ensured, in a press release aired Wednesday night, only having “in no way (summer) associated or even informed, directly or indirectly, of the terms and conditions for the allocation of this fund and its beneficiaries”.
The boss of the CIPDR had already met Ahlam Menouni at the end of 2020. The activist engaged in the fight for secularism was introduced to him by an academic specializing in questions of radicalism, whose identity he did not want to reveal.
Videos on “Islamo-leftism”
From January 2022 to August 2022, in the middle of the legislative presidential election season, “Rebuilding the commons” released 57 videos posted on its YouTube channel titled ” Like a “. These videos aimed at young people contained an apparent bias, with comments about “Islamo-leftism”the “decolonial movement” or on the “republican values”.
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“To our knowledge, there have been no interventions by the firm on editorial content”, said the entourage of Marlène Schiappa. Christian Gravel, for his part, admits having “realized that some content had political references” and ensures that its teams “Immediately reported to them in follow-up meetings. »
“Rebuilding the commons” has stopped streaming content since the summer of 2022, coinciding with the end of election campaigns. In the specifications of the Marianne fund, it was specified that a ” particular attention “ would be brought to the “sustainability of action” candidate associations. Its president nevertheless ensures that the project “is currently on hiatus for professional and personal reasons”.
