How has the control of presidential campaign accounts been strengthened?
Jean-Philippe Vachia: The 2007 election marked an important step in form. For the first time, control was carried out by the National Commission for Campaign Accounts and Political Funding (CNCCFP) and no longer by the Constitutional Council. Since then, the main changes have mainly concerned the loans contracted by the candidates. The 2017 law for confidence in political life notably specified that only banks and financial institutions in the European Union or the European Economic Area can now lend. The parties can no longer lend with interest to a candidate unless they themselves have borrowed at the same rate – this in order to avoid any added value.
Has the organization of primaries made the process more complex?
J.-P. V. : The case law is very clear: the cost of organizing the primary by a political party does not have to appear in the campaign accounts of the candidate who wins it. On the other hand, the communication and propaganda expenses of the latter, incurred during the primary, must appear there.
What are the most common penalties?
J.-P. V. : These are mainly reforms, applied when it is estimated that certain expenses are missing from the accounts or, on the contrary, that a sum does not have to appear in them or proves to be overvalued. We also check that donations have been capped: a person cannot give more than €4,600, all candidates combined, for the same election. The pure and simple rejection of the accounts only happened once, in 2012, with those of Nicolas Sarkozy. A certain number of expenses were missing which, once added, resulted in exceeding the ceiling set by law (22.509 million euros, editor’s note). Nicolas Sarkozy lost his right to reimbursement, around 10 million euros, and had to pay a fine corresponding to the estimated amount of the overrun (€363,615).
→ READ. Speaking time, campaign costs: the gray areas of the “candidate president”
How did the Bygmalion affair, relating to false invoices established during Nicolas Sarkozy’s campaign in 2012, escape the control of the CNCCFP?
J.-P. V. : It is the organization of a system of double invoicing, the invoices of the party being established under a misleading title, unrelated to the presidential campaign. It was not a simple overtaking but a real scam.
→ READ. Bygmalion trial: the 2012 campaign, a “craziness” according to Jérôme Lavrilleux
Could such excesses still escape you?
J.-P. V. : Since 2016, we can call on experts in case of doubt about a service or a price. Campaign accounts are also more complete: they must now include annexes showing all the financing provided by the political parties that support a candidate. To reproduce the practices identified in 2012, the party would therefore have to make a completely false statement. I can’t imagine a large political formation practicing like this. But we still do not have access, during the year of the presidential election, to the internal accounts of the party to ensure that it has indeed declared everything.