The secretary general of the PCF Fabien Roussel on Wednesday asked “an exercise in transparency” from the Minister for Energy Transition, Agnès Pannier-Runacher, whose children hold shares in a company whose funds are partly domiciled in tax havens, fact which he considered “serious”.
“There is tax optimization, there is conflict of interest. It’s not a storm in a teacup, it’s serious, ”said the PCF boss on the France2 set. “The difference between tax optimization and tax evasion is the thickness of a prison wall,” he added.
He criticized “a way of avoiding paying taxes that all French people pay on inheritance tax in particular” and referred the government to its responsibilities in refusing to sanction tax evasion, which is legal in France.
The minister denies the information
The High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) opened an investigation into Agnès Pannier-Runacher on Tuesday, after information from Disclose revealing that his children were associated with this French company whose funds are partly domiciled in tax havens and which is not mentioned in the Minister’s declaration of interests. The person concerned on Tuesday denounced “false and slanderous allegations”.
“The minister has to go and explain herself”, decided for his part the deputy RN Sébastien Chenu on franceinfo Wednesday. “If all goes well, if everything is in order, continue your activity, we will continue to fight against what you are leading as a policy, on the other hand, if you have failed in your obligations, you will have to draw the consequences, that’s it , no more no less,” he continued.
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On Wednesday, Politico also reveals that the minister “has been domiciled since 2021 in a house belonging to the heirs of the late deputy Olivier Dassault” in the center of Lens. According to the news site, her partner, former PS deputy Nicolas Bays, has lived there since 2017, pays rent to the Dassault heirs and plans to buy the property.