Inquiry into favouritism at Macron’s €400,000 Las Vegas soirée

‘There had been no purchase order, no signed contract, no bill connected with the Business France event’

A FORMAL inquiry has been launched into possible favouritism regarding a lavish soirée in Las Vegas in honour of Emmanuel Macron when he was a government minister.

The judicial inquiry could deal a significant blow to the French president’s reformist drive as it implicates his labour minister – at the helm of a landmark labour bill – and her role in organising Mr Macron’s high-profile trip to the Consumer Electronics Show in 2016. The event, which reportedly cost almost €400,000 (£354,000), was orchestrated by Business France, a state body promoting French business interests abroad, at a time when Mr Macron was economy minister under the Socialist government of his predecessor, François Hollande.

The then head of Business France, Muriel Pénicaud, went on to be appointed Mr Macron’s labour minister.

Havas, the advertising and public relations group, was awarded the job of organising the event, allegedly infringing tender rules for public contracts. Several of Mr Macron’s economy ministry colleagues – including one who is now his strategic adviser – formerly worked at Havas.

Mr Macron addressed 500 French start-up bosses at the “French tech night” event, which aides insist he had nothing to do with organising, but a source close to the inquiry cited by AFP said it “showed there might have been pressure” from the Macron team to organise a “soirée that was important for the personal image of the minister and future candidate”.

It also emerged that another key Macron aide, his campaign manager Richard Ferrand, was questioned for seven hours as part of a preliminary inquiry into alleged nepotism. The president ousted four ministers last month over corruption claims.

After several weeks of preliminary investigations, the prosecutor could have remained in charge of the inquiry or dropped it altogether, but instead chose to hand it over to investigating magistrates.

The inquiry into “favouritism” and “concealed favouritism” names no suspects, leaving it to investigators to determine who might be at fault.

Ms Pénicaud, who is leading delicate negotiations with unions over labour reforms making it easier to hire and fire employees, has insisted she was not aware that the proper tender process had not been respected.

Havas was put in charge of the organisation, but under French law, public contracts over €25,000 must be put to tender. Police recently raided its offices, and those of Business France.

The left-leaning daily Libération reported that an audit had revealed that there had been “no purchase order, no signed contract, no bill” connected with the event. The paper said Ms Pénicaud is also suspected of having provided a truncated overview of the audit to Business France’s board of directors.

Ms Pénicaud said in a statement she had been informed after the event about the irregularity and “stopped the payment to Havas”.