before the senators, Mohamed Sifaoui considers himself “manipulated by the political power”

“The first mistake I made was trusting Mr.me Schappa. » Mohamed Sifaoui is very upset, Thursday, June 15, when he concludes his hearing before the commission of inquiry into the Marianne fund, this windfall of 2.5 million euros set up by Marlène Schiappa, then Minister Delegate for Citizenship , following the terrorist ination of Professor Samuel Paty, in October 2020, in order to create a “republican counter-speech” on social networks.

The essayist’s ociation, the Union of Physical Education and Military Preparation Societies (USEPPM), received the largest share of the fund, 355,000 euros, mainly spent on salaries, for a unanimously qualified result inconclusive, consisting of a few dozen tweets, some of which attacked political figures. It is above all the conditions for awarding the grant that are at the heart of the scandal, the subject of an administrative investigation carried out by the General Inspectorate of Administration (IGA), but also of a judicial investigation launched by the national prosecutor’s office. financial – who searched the home of Mr. Sifaoui on Tuesday – and the senatorial commission of inquiry where the essayist tried to justify himself on Thursday.

Although he initially maintained a facade of calm, the tone quickly rose when Mr. Sifaoui attacked several senators, including the committee’s rapporteur, Jean-François Husson (Les Républicains, Meurthe-et -Moselle). “What you say is ridiculous. (…) I demand respect! », got carried away Mr. Sifaoui, who also attacked the report ” pathetic “ rendered by the IGA. “You should keep your nerves”, calmly replied Senator Husson.

“I have a higher than normal capacity for work”

Susceptible, Mohamed Sifaoui has nonetheless confirmed most of the points that have emerged over the revelations of this soap opera: on the one hand, his already long-standing proximity to the Interministerial Committee for the Prevention of Delinquency and Radicalization (CIPDR) , an organization placed under the supervision of Mr.me Schiappa and who managed the Marianne fund.

Mr. Sifaoui, who has boasted of his long practice of ministerial cabinets and his prescience on the rise of jihadist terrorism – “I was taken for a pot when I said that there were going to be attacks” – already visited there Frédéric Rose, the predecessor of the prefect Christian Gravel who resigned following the publication of the IGA report on June 6, at the head of the organization. “From summer 2020, with the appointment of Marlène Schiappa”Mr. Sifaoui says he was contacted by his collaborators for exchanges “regular between the months of September [2020] and March [2021] »around the separatism law, which the minister was then preparing, but also ” tracks ” working on the “republican counter-discourse”.

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