The affair of fictitious jobs in the European Parliament continues to make waves. The latest twist, revealed by the daily Release, Monday September 11, concerns Michèle Alliot-Marie, who was Jacques Chirac’s defense minister before occupying several ministerial positions – interior, justice and then foreign affairs – under Nicolas Sarkozy. The European Parliament should, in fact, claim nearly 600,000 euros from this former MEP, whom it estimates that between 2014 and 2019, she employed her nephew, Florimond Olive, as a parliamentary istant, without him carrying out the missions attached to his job.
“I have not yet received this request, explains Mr. Olive, contacted by The world. I’m waiting to see what basis she uses to act accordingly. But my work as a parliamentary istant was effective. » And to specify, with supporting document, that he had taken a long leave of absence in 2017 in order to participate in the beginnings – quickly aborted due to lack of signatures from elected officials – of Michèle Alliot-Marie’s presidential campaign. Contacted by The worldthe latter had not responded to our requests Monday afternoon.
It all started in 2016, when the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf) updated a system of fictitious jobs within the National Front (FN, which has since become National Rally) dating back to 2010, which allowed some parliamentary istants to of its MEPs to work for the far-right party in France, at the expense of the European taxpayer. Since then, the estimated damage has been estimated at 7 million euros and Marine Le Pen herself was ordered to repay 300,000 euros in the community legislative embly.
Around twenty French MEPs
When the affair was revealed, the FN reported to Olaf around twenty French MEPs from other political groups likely to have also broken the rules. Around ten elected officials and Modem executives, including François Bayrou, are thus implicated. On March 9, 2023, they were sent to prison by the investigating judges.
It is in this context that Olaf was also interested in the case of Mme Alliot-Marie, who has just celebrated her 76th birthday and is now retired from political life. On January 30, the European body transmitted the conclusions of its investigation to the European Parliament and recommended that it recover some 600,000 euros from the former minister.
At this stage, the community institution has not yet formally decided to follow these recommendations. But there is no doubt that she will. As one source confides, “we always follow Olaf’s recommendations, we’re not crazy! ». Why then take so much time? In this specific case, the European Parliament, another source explains to us, sought, beforehand, to verify whether there were no other sums to be recovered (travel which would have been unduly reimbursed for example), by more than 600,000 euros. It seems that after seven months of investigation, he found nothing more.
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