After the backfire, the official response. Marlène Schiappa, on the front page of Playboy Thursday, responds through a press release from the State Secretariat for Social and Solidarity Life to recent revelations on the use of the Marianne Fund. On March 29, a joint investigation by Marianne and France 2 described an opaque management of funds of 2.5 million, created after the death of Samuel Paty by the then Minister Delegate for Citizenship, to fight against separatism.
“These allusions are completely unfounded”, denies the press release, rejecting the idea that the selection of the seventeen projects financed would have been made by Marlène Schiappa and that they “would be friends of the Minister [secrétaire d’Etat] “. According to the press release, audits have shown that “sixteen of the seventeen winning associations justify their good use” of the funds allocated.
Concerning the last association, “the referral to the General Inspectorate of Administration and the Public Prosecutor on the basis of Article 40 of the Criminal Code, […] will shed light” on its governance. “The fight against radicalization continues to be waged”, concludes the press release, “under the impetus of the Minister [secrétaire d’Etat à la Citoyenneté] Sonia Backes”. This Friday, the anti-terrorism prosecution requested a trial against 14 people in the assassination of Samuel Paty.