Macron defends the “completely legitimate” maintenance of Kohler at the Élysée despite his indictment – Le Figaro

Suspected of “illegal taking of interests” in the context of the MSC affair, the secretary general of the presidency retains “all (the) confidence” of the head of state. This is the third time that he has publicly stolen to his aid. During a press conference following a European summit in Prague (Czech Republic) on Friday, Emmanuel Macron justified and defended the retention in his post of the secretary general of the Élysée, Alexis Kohler, recently confirmed as number two of the Presidency of the Republic despite his indictment in the MSC case. “He is not a minister. (…) As for a man who, for several years, has spent his nights and his days serving the State with a devotion and integrity to which I can testify, (…) I consider that the decision that I take is completely legitimate. Justice follows its course in total independence, but it is not procedural decisions – on a file which has been investigated for more than five years, and which has already been the subject of a classification – which should lead to taking administrative decisions. And, for me, to choose my collaborators. He therefore has all my confidence”, hammered the Head of State this Friday. Emmanuel Macron’s closest collaborator was also placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness for “influence peddling”, and is not subject to any judicial control measures. This, in a file born from the publication, in 2018, of several articles by Mediapart on a possible conflict of interest between his positions in the public service and his links with the Mediterranean Shipping Company, founded and directed by the cousins ​​of his mother. , the Aponte family. To read also MSC affair: what is blamed on the secretary general of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler? the company STX France (now renamed Chantiers de l’Atlantique) which manages the shipyards of Saint-Nazaire. Following the Mediapart articles, the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) had opened a preliminary investigation, which it had closed without further action in August 2019, indicating that the analysis of the elements collected “did not (allow) to characterize the initially suspected offenses “. But the Anticor anti-corruption association obtained the relaunch of the investigations in June 2020 thanks to a complaint with civil action, which most of the time allows the appointment of an investigating judge. So many twists and turns which each time led Emmanuel Macron to come to the aid of the one who is often presented as his twin in the shadows. Even if it means exposing himself to a trial by the opposition, who accuse him of undermining the separation of powers. Thus the president, in 2018, praised the “exemplary probity” of his main collaborator, on the sidelines of a trip to Canada at the time. Just as he did not hesitate, in 2020, to sign a letter in his own hand to clear his right arm of any illicit intervention during their common years at Bercy.