World News | Macron says he is not the main focus of campaign account investigations

PARIS, Nov. 25 (AP) — French President Emmanuel Macron denied Friday that he is the main focus of a judicial investigation into alleged illegal financing of election campaigns in 2017 and 2022.

The comments came after major French newspaper Le Parisien first reported on the investigation on Thursday.

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Macron told reporters during a visit to eastern France that he had “nothing to worry about” about the investigation and said he was not the main focus of it – suggesting instead that it mainly involved consulting firms.

Macron said he learned about the investigation through news information. “No one wrote to me, no one called me,” he said.

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He said the judiciary would be “free” to work and “shout out issues”. “It’s normal for justice to work,” he added.

France’s national financial prosecutor said on Thursday it had opened a judicial probe last month into alleged “inconsistent campaign accounts” and “reduced accounting projects” at consulting firms operating between the 2017 and 2022 campaigns, including U.S. consultancy McKinsey & Company.

A separate investigation has been launched into alleged favoritism related to these activities, the statement said.

The statement made no mention of Macron or his party.

Macron said on Friday that his 2017 campaign accounts had been verified through a lengthy legal process.

He added that the accounts for this year’s campaign are currently being processed, just like any other candidate. Campaign finance in France is heavily regulated.

Le Parisien, citing anonymous sources, said magistrates are focusing on conditions under which some major contracts between McKinsey and the state were concluded after Macron’s election.

Macron has denied any link between some employees of consulting firms who volunteered during his campaign and contracts between the state and those firms.

In March, French financial prosecutors opened another investigation into McKinsey’s alleged tax fraud. The company said at the time that it “respected the French tax rules that apply to it”.

The investigation comes two weeks after a French Senate report said McKinsey had not paid corporate profit tax in the country since at least 2011. The report also questioned the government’s use of private consultants.

Macron said at the time he was “shocked” by the alleged tax evasion by the consultancy.

The so-called “McKinsey affair” drew criticism from Macron’s rivals ahead of the French presidential election, which led to him winning a second term in April. (Associated Press)

(This is an unedited and auto-generated story from a Syndicated News feed, the content body may not have been modified or edited by LatestLY staff)