The Minister of Labor, Olivier Dussopt, will be tried in Paris from November 27 to 30 for favoritism in a case relating to a public contract concluded as mayor in the late 2000s with the Urban and Rural Development Company (SAUR) , learned Agence France-Presse (AFP) from a judicial source on Friday, June 2, confirming information from BFM-TV.
For these facts dating from the years 2009-2010, when he was deputy and mayor of Annonay, Mr. Dussopt was summoned to appear for favoritism by the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF), last week. The water treatment group is being prosecuted for concealment of favoritism, and Olivier Brousse, former leader of SAUR, for complicity, said the judicial source.
In a statement following this announcement, the Minister considers that "no corruption" is "accused of him", but that the PNF "considers that there is only one grievance" on five points raised, "in this case a formal infraction of favoritism in a 2009 public contract, fourteen years ago".
"I have convinced the prosecution of the merits of my position on the first four points, I will convince the court of the merits of my position and of my good faith on this last point remaining to be decided", continued Mr. Dussopt .
Works as a gift
The minister "keeps the confidence" of Elisabeth Borne, members of her entourage said in the afternoon, adding that "he will have the opportunity to put forward his arguments before the court ". "Olivier Dussopt can stay" in government in the name of the "principle of the presumption of innocence", also declared the Minister of Public Service, Stanislas Guerini.
The preliminary investigation for illegal taking of interests had been opened against Mr. Dussopt initially in connection with two lithographs by the painter Gérard Garouste which had been offered to him by a company in 2017, when he was deputy-mayor d'Annonay. The investigation was to verify possible facts of "corruption" and "illegal taking of interests".
According to Mediapart, which had announced at the beginning of February this next trial for the minister, the search carried out at the minister's house by the financial investigators of the Central Office for the Fight against Financial and Tax Offenses had updated a possible arrangement around of this suspicious public market.
At the time, in the heart of the mobilization against the pension reform, Matignon had quickly announced that the minister kept "all the confidence of the Prime Minister". A few days later, Emmanuel Macron gave his "full support" to Mr. Dussopt.
