A new chapter opened on Wednesday in the case of the controversial Marianne Fund, launched in 2021 by Marlène Schiappa in order to finance the fight against separatism. During his hearing by the Senate Commission of Inquiry, Sébastien Jallet, the former chief of staff of the current Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy admitted on Wednesday that she had intervened to exclude an association that could have benefited from the fund's funding.
Created after the assassination of Samuel Paty at the initiative of Marlène Schiappa, then Minister Delegate for Citizenship, the Marianne Fund was to finance associations working against separatism. However, revelations from France 2 and Mediapart have revealed several anomalies in the management of this fund. It would have been mainly used to subsidize an association, the USEPPM (Federative Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies) raising suspicions of favoritism. Another beneficiary association of the fund, "Rebuild the common", would have subsequently published content hostile to the political opponents of Emmanuel Macron during the election period.
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During his hearing in the Senate on Wednesday, Sébastien Jallet admitted that Marlène Schiappa had refused a grant to another association. The project selection committee, which was held on May 22, 2021 and in which Marlène Schiappa did not participate, "essentially validated the proposals made by the administration," he said, conceding, however, that a file had subsequently received "unfavorable arbitration from the minister," without mentioning the name of the association.
According to Mediapart, it is SOS Racisme. Questioned by AFP on Wednesday, its president Dominique Sopo said there was no doubt. "We had learned in the spring of 2021, orally through a contact, that we were going to be granted 100,000 euros. Then after, more sound, more light. We didn't get a subsidy," he said.
A personal dispute to explain this refusal?
According to him, "the hearing of Mr. Jallet overlaps with what we were told at the time" to explain the refusal: a personal "dispute" between him and the minister after he signed a collective tribune published in a daily and initiated by the League of Human Rights criticizing the law called "against separatism". Sébastien Jallet, during his hearing, explained this "decision of non-selection on this association" by a "questioning" of the minister by "means of the press". Solicited, the current office of Marlène Schiappa could not comment immediately.
When the Marianne fund affair broke out in several media at the end of March and beginning of April, Marlène Schiappa had strongly defended herself from any breach. "The choice (of the 17 winning associations, editor's note) was made via the administration, maneuvering in compliance with all procedures," said April 6 a statement from his current office. "To falsely claim that this was an ad hominem decision by Marlène Schiappa is totally false and contradicted by the procedure," it said.
This interventionism is also in contradiction with one of the conclusions of a report by the General Inspectorate of Administration (IGA) published on Tuesday. He notes that according to the "testimonies", "the deputy minister erased herself from the process, once the official launch was over" on April 20.
