Marlène Schiappa has finally reacted to the accusations she has been facing for three weeks, following an investigation by Marianne and France 2, concerning the subsidies allocated to associations to fight against separatism within the framework of the “Marianne Fund which she launched in 2021. In a series of tweets, the Secretary of State for the Social and Solidarity Economy and Associative Life denounces “slander”, adding: “I have read and heard a lot of untruths about the Marianne Fund – going as far as defamation”.
A first journalistic investigation had accused the Secretary of State of having granted, in conjunction with the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR), headed by the prefect Christian Gravel, significant funding to an association of which he knew longtime leaders, including the Algerian journalist Mohamed Sifaoui, without the proper use of these funds being properly verified. Another investigation by Mediapart has since accused Marlène Schiappa of having also financed content via this fund, broadcast by the YouTube channel “Comme Un”, targeting political opponents to the executive, in particular Anne Hidalgo, targeted for her management of the City of Paris.
Marlène Schiappa initially justifies her silence on this affair, triggered by the publication of a first investigation on March 29, by her presence at the United Nations in recent days. On the management deemed “opaque” of the financing fund, she justifies it by the need to protect the associations which have benefited from it: “We are talking about the fight against radicalization. The list of projects was kept for their own safety,” she says.
The Secretary of State considers it “false, defamatory, infamous” to assert that she has subsidized friends. “None of the winners of the Marianne Fund is my friend, or my relative, or whatever,” writes Marlène Schiappa, who recalls that two associations are the subject of an investigation by the General Inspectorate of Administration. , at the request of the Secretary of State for Citizenship Sonia Backès.
On the services provided by the subsidized associations, Marlène Schiappa maintains that “the administration has done its duty by not validating certain content”, acknowledging that some of this published content is “questionable”, but she stresses that the criticisms expressed in these texts have targeted “all political tendencies and personalities”, sharing a short extract from a video from the YouTube channel “Comme Un” where she herself is mocked and criticized. “I have not validated the content of these videos and that is not my role. Nor did I ask to target political opponents. As we can see above, these videos also target me. They had to be able to be used to develop critical thinking, ”says Marlène Schiappa.
The Secretary of State finally announces that she has asked her lawyer “to study a complaint for defamation against several platforms and individuals” and says that she is “vigilant of any assertion that [him] would impute an offense in the procedure selection of the Marianne Fund”.
