France: Prosecution investigates “secret dinners” of politicians despite coronavirus bans

Paris prosecutors have launched an investigation into whether French ministers took part in illegal, luxurious dinners, in violation of existing measures to deal with pandemic, after the report aired on the private channel M6, which was based on an anonymous complaint.

Republic Attorney Remy Edge called for a preliminary hearing on the issue of endangered work and undeclared work. The aim is to verify “whether dinners were organized in violation of health regulations and to determine who the organizers and participants were,” the Paris prosecutor’s office told AFP.

In the report that was broadcast on Friday night, an anonymous source claimed that ministers, whom he did not name, participated in these illegal dinners.

Interior Minister Gerald Darmanan said on Twitter that he had asked police to investigate the accuracy of these statements and, if verified, to prosecute “the organizers and participants.”

The channel filmed, with a hidden camera, in an area that he claims was “an illegal restaurant in an aristocratic neighborhood”. The attendants and the waiters did not wear masks, nor did they keep their distance. He also obtained images from another night, where dozens of people crowded, also without masks, and some exchanged kisses.

One of the organizers, who declared himself a “collector”, spoke on the channel in a distorted voice. “I dined this week at two or three restaurants, the so-called illegal restaurants, with some ministers. So I find all this funny. We have a democracy. We do what we want “.

On Twitter, the hashtag #OnVeutLesNoms (“We want the names”) was one of the most popular today.

Minister Marlene Schiapa said that “if ministers or MPs” attended such dinners in Paris, “they should be fined and punished like any other citizen”. Finance Minister Bruno Le Mer stressed that “no one has more privileges” and questioned the so-called restaurant-collector, saying: “let him give the names of the ministers, if he is so well informed”.

“All ministers, without exception, abide by the rules, no one considers themselves to have any privilege,” Le Mer insisted.

The statements of Gabriel Atal, who “by no means” believed the information, while he defended the “exemplary character” of French politicians, followed the same wave.

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