The LR president of the Île-de-France region Valérie Pécresse announced on Wednesday the dismissal of the preliminary investigation opened at the National Financial Prosecutor's Office (PNF) targeting her for illegal taking of interests with the railway manufacturer Alstom.

Valérie Pécresse "welcomes the decision of the PNF to close without further action for lack of offense, the complaint filed against her by elected officials of Europe Ecology The Greens, in February 2022 in the middle of the presidential campaign," said his entourage to AFP. The regional president announced this ranking at the board meeting of the Île-de-France Mobilités Transport Authority (IDFM).

Accused of having made Alstom's shares invisible

It was reported by his opponent Jean-Baptiste Pegeon, one of the elected ecologists who had reported, under article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure, a potential conflict of interest. A source close to the case confirmed the closure for no infringement of this investigation opened in March 2022.

When asked, the PNF confirmed the classification of this investigation which "demonstrated that there was no link of interest between the president of the Ile-de-France region and Alstom at the time of the allocation of the subsidies".

Several elected EELV had denounced to the public prosecutor the fact that Valérie Pécresse would have held stock options at Alstom while chairing the transport authority IDFM. These elected officials, including Jean-Baptiste Pegeon and David Belliard, deputy (EELV) to the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo (PS), relied on an article in the online media Blast accusing the president of the region of having "invisibilized" shares of Alstom that she held with her husband so that they no longer appear in her declarations of interests.

Jérôme Pécresse worked at Alstom until General Electric bought the group's energy activities in November 2015.

€2.4 billion order from Alstom

A month later, Valérie Pécresse was elected head of the region and quickly created, according to Blast, a trust, also known under the Anglo-Saxon term of trust, for a bank to manage this portfolio of shares in their place.

Since then, IDFM has ordered nearly 2.4 billion euros of rolling stock from Alstom, according to elected ecologists.

The personal and family patrimonial situation of Valérie Pécresse "was public, known since 2016, in accordance with the obligations of the High Authority for the transparency of public life (HATVP)", said Wednesday the former LR presidential candidate, attacked on this subject in the middle of the campaign.

Complaint for slanderous denunciation

Valérie Pécresse, who had taken "all measures" to "avoid any conflict of interest" with Alstom, denounces once again a "gross political manipulation" of these elected ecologists.

The PNF informed her that her complaint for "slanderous denunciation" against the elected EELV has just been transmitted to the Paris prosecutor's office for instruction, says Valérie Pécresse.

  • Local
  • Paris
  • Ile
  • Valérie Pécresse
  • Alstom
  • Conflict of interest
  • Île-de-France Mobilités (IDFM)
  • Justice