Laurent Wauquiez, president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, denounced “false information” on Thursday after the publication ofa Radio France investigation on “suspicions of phantom jobs” in the region, where his opposition immediately demanded explanations.
“This article is based, and I regret it, on information which is false, erroneous and dishonest”, commented the elected LR, potential presidential candidate of 2027, questioned on the subject on the sidelines of a press conference dedicated to at the plenary assembly of the region. “I regret that the journalists were exploited,” he added, specifying that he wanted to exercise his “right of response (…) to reestablish the truth of the facts”.
“Total transparency” demanded
Radio France’s investigation unit published an investigation on Thursday into four relatives of Laurent Wauquiez, paid by the regional council and based in Paris, whose missions for the regional executive are the subject of internal questioning.
Radio France does not specify whether these jobs are affected by the investigation opened in 2020 by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF), after the publication of a report from the Regional Court of Auditors on Laurent Wauquiez’s collaborators in the region.
In September 2022, a search was carried out at the regional headquarters as part of these investigations.
“These revelations are part of a list which continues to grow and which has already dented the myth of the “best managed region in France””, commented, in a press release, the group Les Écologues, demanding “ total transparency” to the president of the region.
Former socialist minister Najat Vallaud Belkacem, regional elected official, criticized “the use of regional resources by Mr. Wauquiez” (…) which are not supposed to be a personal pot for building his future.” Her group will ask for details and plans to take legal action if it does not obtain answers on the nature of the jobs described by Radio France, she indicated.