A preliminary investigation opened after a complaint by an individual against the Senate, which did not attribute to him the management of the tennis courts he owns at the Jardin du Luxembourg in Paris, has been closed, said Tuesday the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) to AFP, confirming the Canard enchaîné.
This preliminary investigation "had been opened on January 12, 2022 on the charge of favoritism and entrusted to the Brigade for the repression of economic delinquency (BRDE), following a complaint by Hervé Picard dated December 13, 2021," said the public prosecutor. It was finally classified "for absence of offense", according to the PNF.
The offence of favouritism not applicable
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The Council of State, seized of an appeal on the regularity of this agreement of occupation of the public domain, has indeed ruled by a judgment of 2 December 2022 that "this contract must therefore be regarded as a contract of occupation of the public domain and not as a public service concession subject, therefore, to obligations of advertising and competition"", The prosecutor's office is suing. "However, in the current state of the law, the offense of favoritism is not applicable to authorizations of temporary occupation of the public domain, but only to public contracts, public service delegations and concessions," says the public prosecutor.
In this judgment, the Council of State had, however, ruled against the Senate, terminating the agreement of January 2016 by which the upper house had entrusted, for fifteen years, the operation of its six tennis courts to the Paris Tennis League, a local emanation of the FFT, to the detriment of Paris Tennis, led by Hervé Picard. These fields had been inaugurated in 1939 on a concession granted free of charge by the quaestors of the Senate to the Federation, which sought locations for players with modest resources in the capital.
