The French Prosecutor’s Office has opened an investigation into an alleged diversion of public funds against the president of Los Republicanos, Eric Ciotti, for events related to the 2022 legislative election campaign, in a new investigation that clouds the pre-electoral scenario within the French conservatives.
The investigation is in the hands of the Nice Prosecutor’s Office, which opened the case on May 31 following a tip from the anti-corruption association Anticor, according to sources from the Public Ministry cited by several media, including ‘Le Figaro’, BFM TV or Franceinfo.
Specifically, prosecutors will examine whether there was any type of irregularity in the use of parking cards from the port of Nice provided by the Chamber of Commerce to people close to Ciotti. In total, eight people would have used these cards, including the leader of Los Republicanos himself.
Ciotti is precisely in the eye of the hurricane these days after his desire to reach an agreement with the far-right National Group for the next elections led his own colleagues to try to remove him from leading Los Republicanos. Justice ended up agreeing with him on Friday afternoon, so for now he remains in office.
Ciotti’s campaign has come forward to deny the “umpteenth stink bomb” launched by a candidate who lost the 2022 elections, since the promoter of the complaint within Anticor also appeared in said elections. “He accuses Éric Ciotti of forgetting to pay for parking at the port of Nice. It’s ridiculous,” a spokesperson told Franceinfo.
The team expects that all these accusations will fall under their own weight “in the coming days”, until they are reduced to one of the several “hoaxes” that would be shaking up the campaign and that “will have no influence whatsoever on the result” of the vote.