A preliminary investigation was opened on Monday targeting Guillaume Peltier, following revelations from Mediapart pointing to suspicious use of public funds by the deputy of Loir-et-Cher, according to a statement from the Blois prosecutor's office of which the Parisian was aware.
The investigation will allow “to verify the exact conditions of use of these funds”, specifies the press release.
The economic and financial division of the Research Section (SR) of Orléans will carry out all useful investigative acts, notes the prosecution.
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The former vice-president Les Républicains, now joined by presidential candidate Éric Zemmour, had been the subject of a Mediapart investigation published in November which revealed the use of public funds "to run structures serving his personal career”.
“The Strong Right”, “Friends of Guillaume Peltier”…
Thus, the 45-year-old elected official, now spokesperson for candidate Éric Zemmour during the campaign, would have made his collaborators work, paid by funds from the National Assembly and the Center-Val de Loire region, for his micro-parties or the promotion of his book "Milieu de cordée" published in 2019.
Among these structures, there is "La Droite forte" but also "Les Populaires" or "Les Amis de Guillaume Peltier".
The journalists who investigated showed, with the support of nine testimonies and internal documents, that some of his collaborators would have worked up to “80%” for his personal political structures.
Questioned by the online media, Guillaume Peltier had refused to answer precisely by depicting Mediapart as a “pseudo-journal of the far left which has been trying for so long to destroy the reputation of its political opponents”.
In June 2021, a survey by Le Monde already showed flaws in the financial organization of the multiple structures of Guillaume Peltier allowing anonymous and tax-free donations to be received.
