The report from the Regional Chamber of Accounts was supposed to be presented and discussed at yesterday’s Metropolitan Council session. It was under embargo but… a “manina” (slang for “little hand”) had leaked it, and it was found the day before in a local press title. Following this, the president of the Metropolitan Council, Christian Estrosi, will undertake “legal action against an unknown person for leaking the report, as it was strictly and legally prohibited to distribute it before its presentation to the metropolitan council.”
Discussed during the debate, this case remains shrouded in the necessary anonymity. While commenting on it, the president of the Metropolitan Council, who went through the timeline of its drafting, carefully avoided mentioning any names, although everyone’s gaze (virtual like the presence of elected officials, all via video conference) turned in the same direction…
Eventually, early in the afternoon, the report was officially released by the Regional Chamber of Accounts (*see summary at the bottom of the article).
It is part of two national inquiries conducted by the Court of Accounts, relating to the establishment of metropolises and the localization of housing policy.
The presentation of this report and the subsequent speeches were an opportunity for heated exchanges between Christian Estrosi and his opponents, especially the former radical turned ecologist Jean-Christophe Picard, who is seeking to continue his role as president of Anticor by positioning himself as the Torquemada of Nice’s local authorities (municipal or metropolitan councils).
Oppositions unleash
Indeed, while the president of the Metropolis and the deputy finance president Philippe Pradal offer a laudatory reading of the CRC report, the intervention of the ecologist elected official had the tone of a plea, highlighting vast deficiencies and hinting at possible irregularities.
While the ecologist group seized this opportunity to attack with bayonets, the other opposition group, the National Rally, adopted a more restrained stance, and Jean Ripoll, speaking on their behalf, adhered to more technical considerations to which Philippe Pradal provided his answers. Among accountants, they understand each other… at least in language.
Behind these administrative expressions, for the online newspaper Médiapart, Christian Estrosi “bypasses public service rules to recruit, at a high price, personalities useful for his political career… rather than the community as a whole.”
Thus, the recruitments of Franck Louvrier, a former advisor to Nicolas Sarkozy and mayor of La Baule (working from Paris), former prefect Jean-Michel Drevet, and former magistrate Marc Joando are pointed out, whose professional performances are reportedly not sufficiently evidenced, casting doubt on their effectiveness, especially given their wages hovering around €5,000 gross, sometimes for part-time work.
In response to these accusations of favoritism or cronyism, Christian Estrosi replied, “I will not apologize; I assume and will continue to rigorously assume the calling upon the best.”
What else to alert Philippe Vardon, leader of the RN and even more of a sworn enemy than a political rival of Christian Estrosi?
By shedding his populist guise for a legitimist one, he promptly declared his indignation: “We cannot allow such suspicions to hang over our community and thus severely tarnish its image, as well as its actions. In a period of distrust towards elected officials and institutions, all doubts must be cleared about these jobs, and consequently about the use of public money.”
Following this statement, he unsheathed his stylus: “That’s why I wrote to the Prosecutor of the Republic this morning to request an investigation into these three freelance positions and the actuality of their mission. In light of some responses (‘confidential reports’ being cited in defense), it seems that only a judicial inquiry will fully illuminate and thus refute or confirm the suspicions expressed by Mediapart.”
The question arises: will there be follow-up or will everything end there?
