Élisabeth Borne wants to avoid conflicts of interest. The Prime Minister has therefore withdrawn from any action concerning Anticor, according to a decree published in the Official Journal, while the anti-corruption association is awaiting the outcome of its request for approval by this Tuesday evening, after the cancellation in justice of the precedent.
“The Prime Minister is not aware of acts of any nature relating to the Anticor association”, we can read in the decree signed on Saturday by Élisabeth Borne and published in the JO of December 24. “The corresponding powers are exercised by the Minister of Europe and Foreign Affairs” Catherine Colonna, it is specified.
“Two files” concern the Prime Minister
“When we submitted our application for approval, we had already highlighted a risk of conflict of interest in two files: that of the Triangle Tower (in Paris) -Ms. Borne was director of town planning at the time- ( and) that of highways -Ms. Borne was in the cabinet of (Minister Ségolène) Royal at the time,” explained Élise Van Beneden, president of the Anticor office.
In June, a few days before seeing its approval canceled in court, the association filed a complaint against X, suspecting that motorway concessionaires may have been favored by the Valls government during the conclusion of the Motorway Recovery Plan (PLA ) in 2015. It was Alexis Kohler, current secretary general of the Elysée, and Élisabeth Borne who took care of the negotiations, then noted the program Complément d’investigation and the weekly Mariannewho had revealed the complaint.
Approval required to become a civil party
The association created in 2002, involved in more than 160 procedures including the attribution of the Football World Cup to Qatar, the investigation for illegal taking of interests targeting the secretary general of the Elysée, Alexis Kohler, or that against the guard des Sceaux, Éric Dupond-Moretti, before the Court of Justice of the Republic, awaits by this evening the response to his new request for approval, which allows him to intervene in cases of fight against alleged corruption .
In June, it had this approval withdrawn by the Paris administrative court. The cancellation was confirmed in November by the Paris Administrative Court of Appeal. The administrative court was seized by two dissidents from the association who considered the procedure for renewing the approval irregular and judged that the association did not meet the conditions required to be approved. Without approval, the NGO can no longer become a civil party. Anticor hopes that Catherine Colonna “will be keen to preserve citizen action against corruption because it is essential”, writes the association on X.