BAD CASTING AND CAMOUFLET FOR

EMMANUEL MACRON WHY THE CANDIDATURE OF SYLVIE GOULARD

COULD THERE BE ONLY REJECTED ?

If the former French minister (Enarque, polyglot, expert of the European institutions), at first glance, had the ideal CV for the post of commissioner, she nevertheless dragged pots and pans behind her.

Indeed, the former MEP (2009-2017) is subject to two investigations, one from the French justice system and one from the European Anti-Fraud Office (Olaf). They concern the case of the allegedly fictitious jobs of MEPs from the MoDem, which led to his resignation from the government of Edouard Philippe on June 21, 2017, after a month of exercise. Or she refused to commit to resign if she had to to be indicted in the case of the fictitious jobs of the MoDem. One weight, two measures?

MEPs also had reservations about a possible conflict of interest regarding her work as a "consultant" between 2013 and January 2016 for the Berggruen Institute, while she was a member of the European Parliament. For these activities in the think tank founded by the billionaire US-German Nicolas Berggruen, she received "more than 10 000 euros" gross per month, said the Olaf.

Emmanuel Macron experienced this refusal as a snub. But to propose an application tainted by two cases was it not in itself risky?

Moreover, Emmanuel Macron wanted to impose for his commissioner a portfolio with ultra-broad skills, ranging from the Internal Market to Defense, through Space or Digital, with budgets of several tens of billions of euros. Such a portfolio would have given France a disproportionate power within the Commission. This is also what MEPs rejected this Thursday. The political groups advocate for a redistribution of powers.

The scathing refusal of MEPs to appoint Sylvie Goulard to the European Commission sounds like a personal affront to Emmanuel Macron and his excessive European pretensions.

The New York Times explains that with this rejection of Sylvie Goulard, the European Parliament wanted to "show the muscles", and reaffirm its intransigence in matters of ethics in politics against a France that had found nothing better to propose "A technocrat targeted by no less than two investigations into alleged financial malpractice".

"In a climate of increasing distrust of the political world, it is not so bad that the future commissioners, without any other legitimacy than the heads of state who appoint them, have to answer to the deputies. elected. ", Rightly concludes in Les Echos the journalist Lucie Robequain.