Scandalous! Macron rival accuses President of squandering taxpayer cash on own campaign

The Les Republicans presidential candidate reproached Mr Macron, on Wednesday 12 January for campaigning “with a big crew” and “at the taxpayer’s expense”, telling him to “drop the masks” and urging him to declare himself candidate once and for all. Ms Pécresse said: “What happened on Monday is shocking: we have a president-candidate, in reality, a candidate Emmanuel Macron, who comes to Nice with the means of the State, with the means of the taxpayer, therefore, with a big crew, to announce a presidential programme for 2030.”

The main centrist rival to Mr Macron added: “It is scandalous”.

She continued: “The masks are off, Emmanuel Macron is a candidate.”

Speaking of the recent trip to Nice by the incumbent President, the RP candidate said: “We didn’t see a president of the Republic in Nice on Monday, it was a candidate’s trip on security which is the ball and chain of Emmanuel Macron today,”

Christian Jacob, the president of Les Republicains, seized on Tuesday the commission of campaign accounts (CNCCFP) and Arcom (ex-CSA) to alert them on the expenses related to the travel of the quasi-candidate Emmanuel Macron.

The day after a trip to Nice, where the head of state presented his achievements and announced an increase in the security budget, Christian Jacob points out in his letter, consulted by AFP, the “numerous trips and repeated media interventions by the president of the Republic in this pre-electoral period, when there is no doubt that he will be a candidate for his own succession.”

In his letter, Mr Jacob said to Jean-Phillipe Vachia, the president of the commission of campaign accounts: “I would like to know the methods of control operated” by the commission, in the context of the presidential election, “to ensure that the use of public funds is in accordance with the regulations.”

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From the yellow-vest movement during the first half of his tenure to the handling of the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent vaccine rules, Mr Macron will face a tough election.

Furthermore, huge discontent by French fishermen over the handling of the so-called “fishing wars” with Britain following Brexit has left many voters undecided as to who will win.

Additional reporting by Maria Ortega

source: express.co.uk