Project Pericles: Why Stérin is still dodging the commission of inquiry

Failed again! Summoned this Wednesday, May 14 at 11 a.m. to answer questions from the Parliamentary Commission of Inquiry into "the organization of elections in France," the ultra-conservative billionaire Pierre-Édouard Stérin , whose Périclès project to bring right-wing and far-right ideas together and win out was revealed by L'Humanité last July , has once again let the deputies down.

Citing "security reasons," he did not appear in the Assembly this morning, despite the "guarantees" given to him by the committee's chairman, Renaissance MP Thomas Cazenave, and its rapporteur (LFI), Antoine Léaument. The businessman was resummoned on Tuesday, May 20, at 11 a.m. In the event of another defection, the parliamentarians indicated that they would take legal action.

Opening the session this Tuesday, Thomas Cazenave recalled how "the hearings with the representatives of Pericles (had) been difficult to organize."

After numerous unanswered messages, and a first summons set for April 23, then a second for May 6, to which only the general director Arnaud Rérolle responded , Pierre-Édouard Stérin himself proposed the date of May 14. Before demanding, the day before the meeting, that the hearing be held by videoconference. This was something the deputies could not grant to the founder of Smartbox, "in such a short time, and especially knowing that all arrangements had been made to ensure his safety," Thomas Cazenave said, speaking of a "delaying tactic."

The committee chairman also recalled that "no one may evade the summons of a committee of inquiry." Article 6 of the ordinance of 17 November 1958, which governs the functioning of parliamentary assemblies, provides that anyone who fails to respond to the summons of a committee of inquiry is liable to two years' imprisonment and a fine of €7,500.