Macron: 'I don't think I'm at the center of the investigation'

French President Emmanuel Macron says he does not believe he is at the "center of the investigation" and believes it is "normal for justice to do its job".

The reference is to the investigation opened by the prosecutor into the links between the McKinsey consultancy firm and the 2017 and 2022 electoral campaigns.

High-risk investigations for Emmanuel Macron.

After the rumors of the newspaper Le Parisien, the first to launch the news, the National Financial Prosecutor of Paris (Pnf) confirmed that it had opened two judicial files on potentially explosive ties between the president and the US consulting firm, McKinsey.

A torpedo that already last spring poisoned the victorious presidential campaign that brought Macron to the top of the République for another five years.

Le Parisien speaks of suspected "illegal financing", but also of "favoritism" for the award of some maxi public contracts to the US consultancy firm.

In a note, the national financial prosecutor never mentions Macron's name but confirms that on 20 and 21 October it had opened two judicial inquiries, concerning respectively "

in particular with respect to the contracts concluded in the last five years between the State and private consultancy firms.

On March 17, the Senate revealed that public procurement for this type of consultancy had "more than doubled" between 2018 and 2021, the years of Macron's five-year term, reaching a record of over one billion euros in 2021. McKinsey was the private consultancy firm most solicited by the French authorities during the pandemic.

"If there is evidence of manipulation, go to the criminal court", Macron declared in those days, speaking on the 'Dimanche Politique' broadcast on France 3. "One gets the impression that there have been some mix-ups, it is false - assured the French leader -.

The investigations that come close to the top of the République are conducted by three investigating judges, with the support of the services of the Gendarmerie Nationale.

Among the magistrates, also Serge Tournaire, a long-standing judge, the same one who put former premier Francois Fillon under investigation in 2017 in the case of the fictitious jobs of his wife Penelope in parliament (the so-called Penelopegate), as well as former president Nicolas Sarkozy in the Bygmalion case.

In France, the head of state is protected by criminal immunity, provided by article 67 of the Constitution.

In the press release, the prosecutor Bohnert recalls that the Paris justice system had already opened a preliminary investigation into the McKinsey case on March 31st and on May 24th the police forces searched the Paris headquarters of the US multinational.