The house and the office in the National Assembly of the deputy for the Gironde of the National Rally (RN), Edwige Diaz, were raided on Monday, we found out in Release.
At issue: suspicions of fictitious employment related to the period in which she was parliamentary assistant to MEP Jacques Colombier between 2018 and 2019. The latter’s house was also searched and the elected official was taken into police custody this morning.
“grotesque smear campaign”
In June 2021, during the regional elections where Edwige Diaz was the RN candidate in Gironde, the Anticor association intervened with the Bordeaux prosecutor’s office on suspicion of fictitious employment. “At that moment the former RN formula partner of the deputy came to talk to me about her suspicions,” explains the Girondin referent of Anticor, David Poulain in Release.
“All mentioned embezzlement of public funds, dismissals between Jacques Colombier and Edwige Diaz when he was named eligible in the Dordogne for the 2021 regionals. To the detriment of other local figures”
The Bordeaux public prosecutor’s office then seized the European public prosecutor’s office in July 2021, which has since led, in France, a preliminary investigation for “embezzlement of public funds, complicity in the cover-up”.
A “ridiculous maneuver”
For her part, Edwige Díaz spoke on Twitter. She said that she was the victim, along with Jacques Colombier, “of a grotesque smear campaign by, in particular, former members of the National Group who only seek to defame us.” For the rest, “we are calm in the face of this ridiculous maneuver and we will quickly demonstrate it to the competent authorities,” she added.
The deputy’s lawyer, Alexandre Varaut, assured France Bleu Gironde that “not a minute ago [de travail] which is not justified.” He specifies that his client “had a part-time job.” And he adds in the process: “I even worked more than part time, we have proof of it.”
Source: BFM TV
