The investigation, entrusted on July 21 to an examining magistrate, led to the opening of a judicial investigation against X. It relates to suspicions of embezzlement of public funds and illicit financing of campaign targeting the socialist executive. of the New Aquitaine region chaired by Alain Rousset, the Nanterre prosecution said on Monday, confirming information from South West. The President of the Region Alain Rousset has not been heard and no indictment has been pronounced in this case at this stage.
It is the Nanterre public prosecutor’s office which is now leading the investigations, since the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office has divested itself. Judicial information has been opened against X on various counts of offence, including the embezzlement of public funds by a person holding public authority or a person entrusted with a public service mission and the illicit financing of an electoral campaign, specified the floor. Alain Rousset’s cabinet declined to comment.
The 2015 election campaign in the viewfinder
In March 2021, David Angevin, cabinet collaborator from 2015 to 2018 as “pen” of Alain Rousset, had filed a complaint accusing the socialist management team of having “charged with public money” the electoral campaign of the regional of 2015, using the resources and work of local authority employees.
David Angevin, journalist and writer, had directed the University of the Future, a think tank in the region on the digital revolution, from which he was dismissed in January 2020 after disagreements according to him with political leaders.
“Intent to harm” according to the President of the Region
Alain Rousset had deemed the complaint “devoid of any foundation” and underlined “an intention to harm”, “four months before the regional ballot” of June 2021, which had seen him be re-elected. According to him, David Angevin had been dismissed because of “his inability to collaborate in a peaceful manner with his colleagues and partners”.
As part of this investigation, a search took place in May 2021 at the regional hotel and former members of Alain Rousset’s cabinet were placed in police custody last May.