It’s a journey that raises many questions. The socialist and environmentalist opponents of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council are demanding “transparency” after an article on a professional trip by the president of the region Laurent Wauquiez to Japan.
The world published a paper on Saturday entitled Laurent Wauquiez’s very “confidential” trip to Japanon a trip from March 8 to 15.
An “economically oriented” trip
It was a trip “with an economic vocation in which more than 25 regional companies participated”, intended to “promote industrial companies in the region”, explained Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises, in charge of helping companies to develop internationally. The region’s economic development agency, of which Laurent Wauquiez is co-president, not the region, was the organizer of this mission.
“It is false to say that this trip had any confidential nature”, further reacted the agency, which claims to have “communicated on multiple occasions on social networks, with businesses and with the general public”.
The group of Ecologists at the regional council, which believes that Laurent Wauquiez “does not care much about transparency”, “requests that all elements relating to this trip be made public”. Same request from the Socialist, Ecologist and Democrat group. In addition, the former hope “that the Court of Auditors will finally carry out an audit of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Entreprises Agency, as it proposed in its report on the accounts of the Region in 2019”.
During this trip, the delegation met with Japanese leaders and officials, notably in Hokkaido to promote companies linked to mountain activities, and participated in the Smart Manufacturing Summit in Nagoya, in central Japan, said the ‘agency.
A dinner in a starred restaurant
The regional opposition is particularly questioning the organization of a dinner with nearly 150 French and Japanese business leaders in a Michelin-starred restaurant in Tokyo. She also reiterates her criticism of Laurent Wauquiez’s expenses, already pointed out by Mediapart for a very expensive dinner organized in the summer of 2022. This “summit dinner” is the subject of an investigation by the National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF).
“This new affair also reinforces our questions about the activities of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises over which the control of elected officials is very limited,” said the socialist elected officials, emphasizing that the agency is “80% financed” by the region.
For its part, Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes Entreprises indicated that “the amounts are not consolidated at this stage”, but that the financial statement “may be distributed as part of the process of presenting the agency’s own accounts”.