The Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, affirms that he is not putting himself in the “perspective” of a possible conviction for favoritism which could raise the question of his retention in government, in an interview published Sunday by the daily The Parisian. “I don’t put myself in that perspective. A trial is an experience I wouldn’t wish on anyone. But it also allowed me to respond point by point to the accusations and questions,” he answers the question of a possible resignation in the event of conviction.
“I am requesting release, it is in this perspective that I place myself,” he adds. Ten months of suspended imprisonment and a fine of 15,000 euros were requested on Wednesday against the Minister of Labor, tried for suspicion of favoritism in a public water distribution contract in 2009, when he was mayor of ‘Annonay (Ardèche).
The Paris criminal court will deliver its decision on January 17. “Ministers or political leaders are litigants like any other”, underlines Olivier Dussopt, while the Minister of Justice, Éric Dupond-Moretti, has also just been tried for illegal taking of interests, and acquitted, by the Court of justice of the Republic.