The Grand-Est region has never been talked about so much. While the election of its new president takes place this Friday in Metz, another news touches it. The association “anti-corruption AC!! “announced Thursday evening that she had filed a complaint against X with the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office “for the offense of favoritism and illegal taking of interest” on the part of Jean Rottner.
What does she blame the former president of the region for? His reclassification after public life. The emergency doctor by training announced his resignation from the presidency of the Grand-Est at the end of December. He had then justified it for “family imperatives”. Before, a few days later, his new role is formalized. A position in a consulting firm and real estate developer.
“The Réalités group announces the opening in the summer of 2023 of its Grand Est regional branch. It will be headed by Jean Rottner who, after leaving public life, joined the entrepreneurial adventure,” the company said on its website at the time.
“Luxury VRP”
Since then, this “revolving door” has struggled to pass. “This announcement comes a little quickly, which suggests that it had already been concluded for some time”, had then reacted Eliane Romani, leader of the environmental group. Jean Rottner “uses the network he acquired in his public functions to go and serve a private organization which has relations with the communities, it is a definition of revolving door”, she had completed. “He leaves with a large amount of territorial data”, worried Christophe Choserot (Renaissance), member of the centrist group and mayor of Maxéville (Meurthe-et-Moselle).
“The taking of such a position is not done without the agreement of the HATVP [Haute autorité pour la transparence de la vie publique] “, retorted Jean Rottner. Seized in July by the elected official, the HATVP had issued an opinion in September “compatible with reservations”, in which it invited him to “refrain, within the framework of his private activity, from taking any steps with elected officials and agents from the Grand-Est region”.
An opinion that is obviously not enough to the anti-corruption association AC!!. “For me, Jean Rottner is a very luxury sales representative, he is in this new place thanks to the springboard of the Grand-Est region. I don’t see how he could have landed there in real estate as a doctor. I think an investigation is necessary,” one of the members, Marcel Claude, told France Blue Alsace.