Le Figaro Nice
More than three months after it was held, and the controversies that accompanied it, the "Nice Climate Summit" is still the talk of the town. The public prosecutor of Nice, Damien Martinelli, told Le Figaro that this symposium devoted to the environment and climate issues will be the subject of a preliminary investigation on the charge of "illegal acquisition of interest". This will be entrusted to the judicial police.
The public prosecutor's office took this decision following a report filed by three elected ecologists from Nice, Juliette Chesnel-Leroux, Jean-Christophe Picard and Fabrice Decoupigny. In this article 40 dated 27 September, which was seen by Le Figaro, they suspect a conflict of interest between the city and the metropolis of Nice, led by Christian Estrosi; his wife, journalist Laura Tenoudji; and the newspaper La Tribune through its event organization, co-organizer with the event community. A letter was sent to the president of the city's ethics committee, Hervé Expert, on this subject.
They questioned the fact that the city and metropolis of Nice had voted indirect aid subsidies for nearly 526,175 euros in view of this "Nice climate summit" even though the wife of the president-mayor Christian Estrosi was to lead two round tables. Laura Tenoudji-Estrosi also promoted the event in a short video shared in the invitations. At the last moment, she finally decided to withdraw. Faced with what the municipality had described as "unfounded and false accusations", Laura Tenoudji-Estrosi had specified that she had accepted this mission "on a voluntary basis". She has been collaborating with this media outlet independently "for more than five years, all year round", explained the Nice city hall.
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Three anomalies
In their report, these opposition MPs pointed out three anomalies. They pointed out that Christian Estrosi had taken part in the vote on a deliberation concerning a partnership agreement with La Tribune for this event but had not notified in his declaration of interests the situation of his wife, who works for this company. Finally, they put forward "a false mention" that the mayor had not taken part in this vote. All these elements convinced the Nice prosecutor's office of the relevance of opening legal proceedings.
A second anonymous report, this time relating to the Junior Eurovision Song Contest, which took place in Nice, was also filed on 5 November. It concerned the opening ceremony that Laura Tenoudji had presented for France Télévisions. "His analysis is still ongoing," the prosecutor added.
Targeted, the journalist and columnist of the show "Télématin", known by the nickname "Laura of the web", decided to defend herself. "Under the pretext that I am my husband's wife, they want to take away my right to practice my profession and they allow themselves to make me look incompetent," she said angrily in Nice-Matin. Christian Estrosi's lawyer, Mr. Baratelli, had indicated that he would file a complaint for "slanderous denunciation" against the authors of these reports.