Macro faces possible legal problems for consultants

Although the financial prosecutor's announcement does not specifically mention the Macroni campaign, it is believed that his election team is the main target of two separate investigations, reports the France Presse (AFP) Agency.

The prosecution confirmed that since October two investigations into the use of consultants during the 2017 and 2022 elections have been launched.

As the AFP reports, these consultancy services have been in the spotlight since March of this year after an investigation by the French Senate, which concluded that public spending on them doubled since 2018 in 2021 during the first mandate of Macron.

The total amount reached more than $1 billion euros ($1.1 billion) last year, which Macroni's opponents have often quoted during his April campaign, AFP reports.

Mediapart news research site reported that consultants from the American firm McKinsey worked for free in the Macro campaign in 2017.

The French president's cabinet announced that the <x0 judiciary system is obliged to conduct these investigations fully independently”.

AFP reports that prosecutors will investigate allegations involving possible false election campaign calculations and underestimation of campaign costs, as well as possible favourability and plots in favour.

France has rigorous rules of campaign financing, which impose restrictions on what a candidate could use.

For the 2022 presidential elections, each candidate had 16.8m euros at the top for the first round and 22.5m euros for the second round. / REL