The new government is not immune to new scandals. A Secretary of State is accused of having taken advantage of her functions for a personal need.
Patricia Mirallès, was appointed Secretary of State in charge of Veterans Affairs and Memory with the Minister of the Armed Forces Sébastien Lecornu during the reshuffle announced on July 4. She is also a member of the 1st constituency of Hérault. But she begins her duties with an embarrassing file, which affects her personally.
An investigation published by Mediapart in May revealed that she would have used money intended for her mandate expenses as a deputy, to settle “Personal expenses”. Among these payments would be the move of his son. Mediapart also mentions various daily costs for her and her family such as a hotel stay with her companion or the repair of a hard drive which would actually be that of her daughter. The MP would then have passed these expenses on an expense report.
Patricia Mirallès denounces “a witch hunt”
An investigation that could go wrong. All the more so after a first government which suffered scandals. After the complaint for attempted rape against the former Minister of Solidarity, Damien Abad, or the accusations of gynecological violence that Chrysoula Zacharopoulou must manage, Elisabeth Borne must assume a member of the government involved in a financial affair.
At the time of the Mediapart investigation, Patricia Mirallès had formally refuted the facts. In a long press release published on May 5, she denounced “a witch hunt (…) I’m not frankly surprised to be an easy target”.
The MP now Secretary of State has not been incriminated. However, Mediapart had reinforced its investigation, a month after the publication of the press release by Patricia Mirallès. The investigative media had unveiled text messages from collaborators of the deputy for Hérault, in which they wonder about “the use of the advance on mandate expenses (AFM) for computer equipment with no obvious link to parliamentary activities”. Supporting Mediapart’s theory about his daughter’s hard drive repairs.