Target of a judicial investigation, The chained Duck denies having used a fictitious job, defending an assembly which, although “acrobatic”, “harmed” no one according to him, in his edition to be published on Wednesday. The couple, André Escaro, now 94, and his wife Edith, a journalist, “used to work in pairs”, explains the administration committee of the newspaper, made up in particular of the director of publication, Nicolas Brimo.
Edith would have been hired as reinforcement for André
According to this committee, the facts date back to 1996, the year in which André Escaro, “pillar” of the newspaper and author of “cabochons” (small drawings), decided to retire, to the great displeasure of the management of the palmipede, who intended to retain him. .
But “cumulation-retirement employment is not authorized”, then reminds him André Escaro, “especially” anxious to “get away from political turbulence to better devote himself to his passions”, explains the committee. “He will finally give in on condition that his companion, Edith, support him by reading in particular “the press for him”. “This is how Edith was hired, in support of André, who obviously no longer received a penny,” to produce “more than 8,000” drawings that were “nothing fictional” for 26 years, until they were indented in June, according to the article.
In fact, the investigation stems from a complaint against X by the journalist and SNJ-CGT union representative, Christophe Nobili, one of the three investigators of Le Canard Enchaîné at the origin of the revelations, in 2017, on the suspicions of employment fictitious aimed at François Fillon and his wife Penelope.