A preliminary investigation for illegal acquisition of interests will be opened "at the beginning of this week" after a report on the role of presenter Laura Tenoudji-Estrosi during the "Nice Climate Summit", announced on Monday the public prosecutor in Nice Damien Martinelli.
Columnist since 2000 at Télématin on France 2 and wife of Mayor Christian Estrosi (Horizons) since 2016, Laura Tenoudji-Estrosi was to lead two round tables at this symposium on the environment, subsidized by the City and the Metropolis and co-organized by the economic media La Tribune in September 2023.
Faced with the controversy, she had given up the day before, while the City and the Metropolis assured in a press release that she had to speak at the conference "on a voluntary basis" and recalled that she had been collaborating with La Tribune for five years.
'It's an undignified battle'
In December, three Green MPs had sent a report to the public prosecutor's office to denounce a lack of rigour on the part of the Estrosi couple in separating their activities, evoking, for example, the fact that the subsidies to the conference had been voted without the indirect links between Mr. Estrosi and La Tribune, via Mrs. Tenoudji, be evoked.
"This is an undignified battle waged by an opposition with no prospects," said Olivier Baratelli, a lawyer for the city of Nice, in a statement. "This investigation will help put an end to this slanderous campaign."
VIDEO. Laura Tenoudji and Christian Estrosi: two reports for conflicts of interest sent to the courts
According to the online newspaper Mediapart, another report was sent to the prosecutor's office by "a territorial official wishing to remain anonymous" regarding Ms Tenoudji-Estrosi's participation in the opening ceremony of the Junior Eurovision Song Contest in November.
The Monday before the programme organised in Nice by France Télévision, Ms Tenoudji-Estrosi had been asked to introduce the young candidates one by one to a programme filmed in the lounges of the Negresco hotel. This report "is still being analyzed," the prosecutor said.