Le Figaro Nice
The dispute over expenses linked to the former French F1 Grand Prix is never-ending between the two elected officials from the Alpes-Maritimes.
In a virulent press release shared Thursday evening, the mayor of Nice and former president of the public interest group (GIP) in charge of organizing the race, Christian Estrosi, denounced
“the lies”
and
“the slander”
of the Member of Parliament for Les Républicains, Christelle d'Intorni.
The elected official had questioned on the set of the
Nice-Matin
political program the concordance of certain expenses with the birthday dates of the Nice councilor after having ended up obtaining the documents that she had been requesting for almost nine months.
The deputy for the 5th constituency had pointed out
“a restaurant for 850 euros in the area of Bégude (Var)”
on July 1, 2022, the birthday of Christian Estrosi, but also
“a bill for 500 euros at the hotel in Crillon”
, November 12, 2019, the anniversary of his relationship with journalist Laura Tenoudji.
In the bundles of expense reports that she ended up receiving after having contacted the commission for access to administrative documents (Cada), then filing a legal appeal before withdrawing, she still notes other expenses that she judges suspicious and inconsistent with justified costs for organizing a sporting event.
After four editions, the French Grand Prix, at Le Castellet, left a debt of 32 million euros.
To prove that in no case had he benefited from GIP money, and therefore public money, Christian Estrosi relayed to the press and on his social networks various photos proving that he was not in the places noted by the Member on these dates.
On July 1, 2022, he shared a publication from his Instagram account where he gets on a bike, at the Col d'Èze and another, the next day, where he sits down with his family in Alassio, Italy.
For November 12, Christian Estrosi's teams first communicated an image from 2022, where he is with his partner at Lake Como.
But it was in 2019 that the invoice mentioned a night at the Crillon hotel.
At Le
Figaro
, his office ensures that the councilor was in Denmark that year, in Copenhagen.
Read alsoFormula 1: this investigation into the management of the French Grand Prix which embarrasses Christian Estrosi
"Unworthy"
“These lying comments, these false news broadcast are unworthy of anyone who claims to be a parliamentarian
,” exclaimed Christian Estrosi, explaining that he had never had to respond to attacks
of “this baseness”
and
“this vileness”
.
The councilor also sees it as an attack on his family which he considers
“intolerable”
.
“She and her sponsors hope to weaken me, the opposite will happen
,” he galvanized.
He announced that he had filed a complaint for defamation against Christelle d'Intorni,
"as well as the media which spread his hatred without the slightest journalistic work"
, yet another threat from the councilor against the press.
“The subject is not the person of Christian Estrosi, but the president of the GIP that he was
,” defends
MP Christelle d'Intorni to
Le Figaro .
She maintains
“that there are many expenses which have taken place and which require explanations”
.
“If it’s not him, who is it?
Rather than sending us photos, it would be better to provide us with precise invoices
,” insists the elected official.
Among the other expenses seen,
“a Mont-Blanc bill of 10,800 euros”
,
“luxury baby clothes”
,
“67,000 euros at Disneyland”
, or even,
“more than 9,000 euros in accommodation costs in Courchevel”
.
On this last point, several consistent sources assured us that Christian Estrosi was not there and that it was only a stay between Grand Prix partners.
“She's going to break her teeth, she doesn't know the file
,” predicted a follower of the event.
After a report to the courts by another Nice elected official, a preliminary investigation - still in progress - was opened by the Marseille prosecutor's office for "favoritism", "embezzlement of public funds" and "concealment".
At a time when Formula 1 is resuming its rights this weekend, a completely different race continues to be contested in France, once again devoid of a Grand Prix this season.