The decision of the Court of Cassation fell on Wednesday and should probably put an end to the legal proceedings against Richard Ferrand. Former President of the National Assembly, this pillar of Macronie was prosecuted for “illegal taking of interest” in the Mutuelles de Bretagne affair. “It’s a satisfaction. This is proof that this case, which from the start had been closed, should never have been reopened, ”recalls Emmanuel Piwnica, lawyer for the former deputy. “I consider it over today. The case is over, period.
In the opposite camp and especially in the ranks of the Anticor anti-corruption association, the disappointment was palpable. “The Court of Cassation made a very strict interpretation of the law, escaping Richard Ferrand from his criminal responsibility”, estimates Jérôme Karsenti, the association’s lawyer, who had filed a complaint against the former President of the Assembly national.
Works worth more than 250,000 euros
Richard Ferrand was suspected of having taken advantage of his position as general manager of the Mutuelles de Bretagne, from 1998 to 2012, to favor his partner, the lawyer Sandrine Doucen, allowing him to buy real estate in 2011 without paying a penny. Work to the tune of 250,000 euros had also been carried out and financed by the Mutuelles de Bretagne, an organization receiving public subsidies.
The case, revealed in 2017 by the Chained Duck, had cost Richard Ferrand his short-lived portfolio as Minister of Territorial Cohesion, barely a month after his appointment. The end of the prosecution falls when two other relatives of Emmanuel Macron, the secretary general of the Elysée Alexis Kohler and the Minister of Justice Eric Dupond-Moretti are implicated in cases of breach of probity.