It is a distinctly French specificity: to take legal action, an anti-corruption NGO must obtain approval… from the government. And in the case of Anticor, it seems the relationship with the executive branch is not smooth. This Friday, the official journal recorded the implicit refusal of the government regarding the association’s latest request.
A law from 2013 introduced the possibility for anti-corruption associations…
It is a distinctly French specificity: to take legal action, an anti-corruption NGO must obtain approval… from the government. And in the case of Anticor, it seems the relationship with the executive branch is not smooth. This Friday, the official journal recorded the implicit refusal of the government regarding the association’s latest request.
A 2013 law introduced the possibility for anti-corruption associations to take legal action against the obtaining of approval. By constituting themselves as civil parties, the associations can access the case file and, if they deem it necessary, restart investigations by bringing in an investigating judge when a complaint is dismissed. This mechanism was designed as a safeguard involving civil society against potential temptations to bury sensitive cases.
Approved since 2015 alongside the Sherpa and Transparency International associations, Anticor had made this tool the cornerstone of its action. The association is currently involved in 148 procedures. It has particularly made headlines against the Macron administration by filing complaints against Eric Dupond-Moretti and Richard Ferrand (these complaints have resulted in dismissals or acquittals after high-profile investigations). The association is also behind the judicial inquiry in which the Secretary General of the Élysée, Alexis Kohler, is under investigation for illegal taking of interests.
Internal Divisions
However, the actions of some of the 7,000 volunteer members are sometimes criticized, including internally. In 2020, the NGO was plagued by internal divisions. Taking advantage of a poorly drafted approval order by Prime Minister Jean Casteix (which he had accompanied with reservations), two opponents of Anticor’s management obtained its annulment from the administrative court in June 2023. The two applicants are represented by Me Frédéric Thiriez, a lawyer close to the Macron administration, who was notably the lawyer for Richard Ferrand and to whom Emmanuel Macron had also entrusted an evaluation mission for a reform of the ENA!
Since then, new requests for approval will always be refused. When questioned by AFP, Matignon indicated that it wishes to let the procedures before the administrative justice run their course (the previous implicit refusal is contested). The president of the association, law professor Paul Cassia, believes, on the contrary, that the government is “playing for time” by paralyzing the NGO while, according to him, it has presented all the necessary guarantees.
This mechanism in the hands of the executive is certainly not likely to dispel suspicions of settling scores. During the previous request, the Keeper of the Seals, who was targeted by a complaint from the association, had to recuse himself in favor of Prime Minister Élisabeth Borne who, herself targeted by another complaint, had to recuse herself in favor of the Minister of Foreign Affairs! For many anti-corruption actors, the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP), an independent authority created following the Cahuzac affair, would likely be better placed to handle these approval requests instead of the executive. But it seems that the latter is in no hurry to relinquish this prerogative.
