French
police have searched the HQ of President Emmanuel Macron's Renaissance
political party and the offices of US consulting giant McKinsey in
Paris.
Tuesday's
raids are part of inquiries into the use of consultancies during Mr
Macron's winning presidential campaigns in 2017 and 2022, prosecutors
say.
Neither President Macron himself nor his campaign teams have been publicly identified as targets by prosecutors.
Both Renaissance and McKinsey said they were co-operating with the inquiries.
"It's
normal for the judiciary to investigate freely and independently to
shed all the light on this subject," Renaissance spokesman Loic Signor
told the AFP news agency.
Meanwhile,
McKinsey told Le Figaro newspaper that "the firm is co-operating fully
with the authorities, as has always been the case".
France has strict rules regarding the financing of political parties and election campaigns.
Public spending on consultancies spiked during Mr Macron's first term in office, lawmakers concluded in March.
French
prosecutors opened two judicial inquiries in October, looking into
possible false election campaign accounting and favouritism.
The
prosecutors suspect that a number of McKinsey employees worked as
unpaid volunteers during Mr Macron's victorious 2017 bid, and one
investigation is focusing on whether this constituted a hidden campaign
expense.
Another
investigation is trying to establish whether the consultancy firm had
privileged treatment in winning lucrative government contracts.
He was found guilty of spending tens of millions of euros more on his campaign than was permitted under the law.
Sarkozy
- who denied any wrongdoing - was not jailed, however, as he was
allowed to serve his sentence at home with an electronic bracelet.
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