State Looters

On September 15, 2017, in front of millions of television viewers, Emmanuel Macron, with François Bayrou, his Keeper of the Seals at the time, delivered his first lie: “It is now impossible to be elected when you have a B2 criminal record”. Nothing could be further from the truth: in 2025, it is still possible to stand for election and be elected after having been convicted by the courts, whereas there are 396 professions requiring a clean criminal record.

Ten years after the best-seller Pilleurs d’État, which sold 120,000 copies, Philippe Pascot takes stock of the advances and setbacks in French politics, listing all the legal abuses still available to the political class: exorbitant salaries and associated expenses, tax exemptions, multiple pensions, fictitious jobs, exceptional justice, show trials, bogus declarations of interest and activities, and so many other little arrangements between friends… 

For Philippe Pascot, the conclusion is clear: “Behind a declared desire for transparency and a more ethical political sphere, our elected representatives continue to pursue their own interests through increasingly incomprehensible laws, in order to avoid criminal prosecution and drape themselves in an air of circumstantial innocence”.

 

Deputy to Manuel Valls at Évry town hall, then town councillor, regional councillor, chairman of the Île-de-France vocational training and apprenticeship commission, Chevalier des Arts et des Lettres, Philippe Pascot has worked with most of the world’s leading politicians and mi lite for total transparency in politics. He is the author of seven books published by Max Milo: Délits d’élus and Du goudron et des plumes, which list more than 1,200 politicians who have had dealings with the law; Pilleurs d’État, Allez presque tous vous faire…, Pilleurs de vies, Mensonge d’État and Le Pouvoir du pire on the licit failings of politicians.