Marianne Foundation: A beneficiary association accused of funding political content during an election period.

These are embarrassing revelations that the Playboy cover may not forget. The Marianne Foundation, set up by current Secretary of State Marlene Schiappa when she was Minister Delegate for Citizenship, funded a mysterious association that distributed political content against Emmanuel Macron’s opponents during the last election, Mediapart reported this Wednesday.

Investigations by France 2 and Marianne magazine have already exposed the opaque management of the “Marianne Foundation” created by Marlene Schiappa after the murder of Samuel Paty to support actors in the fight against radicalization. The €260,000 grant paid to the Union of Societies for Physical Education and Training for Military Service (USEPPM) raises particular questions, as its leaders received up to €120,000 from the fund. Since then, an investigation has been launched with the General Administration Inspectorate to clarify the situation.

But Mediapart’s revelations also concern another association, also the beneficiaries of this “Marianne fund”. Rebuild the common – that’s what it’s called – was able to benefit from a €330,000 grant when it was just set up and had no known activity when it applied to participate in projects to benefit from the fund, reports Mediapart. The charter of the association was registered on October 29, 2020, thirteen days after the assassination of Samuel Paty. They were submitted to the prefecture on February 14, 2021, two months before the start of applications for the Marianne Foundation on April 20, 2021.

Video of political content

In its project, the association aims to: “deploy a republican discourse adapted to the codes and cultural references of 18-25 year olds in social networks and on the Internet in the form of videos, visuals, memes, interviews, reports, documentaries and events.” It did well, with 57 videos produced and broadcast between January 2022 and August 2022. But they and their content raise questions.

Mediapart, which thus analyzed the videos, notes “clear bias, without controversy,” content that “rejects the obsessions of part of the presidential majority.” Some content also “furiously” attacks the opponents of Emmanuel Macron. Thus, in the program broadcast ten days before the legislative elections, it is about the camp of “reason”, which will be LREM, and “extreme”, which will be Nupes or RN. However, as Mediapart reminds us, the use of public funds to influence the outcome of an election is prohibited.

The subsidy paid to this association raises questions, especially since the association will “live” only during election campaigns, Mediapart emphasizes. “The project is currently on hold for professional and personal reasons,” its president, Ahlam Menuni, told the newspaper. A break is not a stop, on the contrary, we are very proud of what we started. »

Schiappa denies any involvement in the choice

In a press release issued after the first revelations, Marlene Schiappa’s cabinet denied that the minister had a say in the beneficiaries. “The erroneous assertion that Marlene Schiappa made the decision ad hominem is absolutely false and is refuted by the procedure, just as the assertion that these will be friends of the minister is absolutely false,” he explained. And further: “Following audits planned since the launch of the fund, sixteen of the seventeen winning associations justify their proper use. »