A Dutch journalist who claimed the expense reports of the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo in 2017, the year in which the city obtained the organization of the Olympic Games, finally recovered them on Friday after five years of legal proceedings in which he emerged victorious.
“I finally have the expense reports of Anne Hidalgo and her firm for the year 2017. The investigation continues,” said Stefan de Vries, a freelance journalist living between Paris and Amsterdam, on Twitter. Received by the Deputy Secretary General of the City and Yves Charpenel, President of the Ethics Commission for Parisian elected officials, Mr. de Vries left with six files corresponding to representation costsdisplacement and restoration of the elected socialist and five of her collaborators, he told AFP.
Four years of process
Constrained by the decision of the Council of State, the town hall had initially “invited” him on Wednesday March 22 but the correspondent considered this date “far too far from the deadline for injunction set by the Council of State”, which had the 8 February ordered the mayor to “re-examine Mr. de Vries’ request within one month”.
The town hall and the lawyer agreed on an appointment this Friday afternoon. In March 2021, the Paris administrative court had already acceded to Stefan de Vries’ request, ordering the City of Paris to communicate these documents to it. The City then appealed to the Council of State to have this judgment set aside.
If she won her case on this point, the Elders basically agreed with the journalist, considering that “expense notes and travel receipts as well as catering expense notes and representation expense receipts from elected officials premises or public officials constitute administrative documents, which can be communicated to any person who requests them”.
Mr. de Vries had requested these documents at the beginning of 2018 from the town hall, in vain, to try to explain in an article “how much the campaign for the Olympic Games cost the taxpayer”, he explained to AFP. 2017, Paris had been designated host city of the 2024 Olympics. To do this, Anne Hidalgo had multiplied travels around the world to promote the Parisian candidacy.