The uninhibited lobbying of an employee of LREM deputy Pierre Cabaré

Tarbes, October four, 2019, Pierre Cabaré attends the Normal Meeting of group of industrialists and general aviation professionals (Gipag), which is held in a manufacturing facility of the plane producer and provider Daher. On the souvenir photo, the members of the affiliation pose across the deputy LREM of the primary constituency of Haute-Garonne. Among the many members of the affiliation current that day, certainly one of them wears a double cap. Administrator of the Gipag, Jacques Callies certainly held the put up of parliamentary assistant to the deputy from October 2019 to October 2020, whereas persevering with to defend the pursuits of normal aviation (taxis, leisure actions, and so forth.) which neither pertains to business transport. passengers or army aviation.

“I used to be there to defend a trigger: aviation, which is abused by the Greens and the State”, assumes, with out complicated, Jacques Callies. In accordance with him, he would have been employed for exactly that: “I accepted a mission which was to defend the aviation”, he explains. To inform the reality, this retiree of the specialised press by no means hid it. Proof of that is, his editorial signed in October 2019 in the journal Aviation et Pilote that he publishes, and by which he proclaims his recruitment.

It was whereas lobbying for aviation that Jacques Callies met Pierre Cabaré. Vice-president of the aeronautical circle of the Parliament, whose goal is exactly to foyer, he approaches the deputy throughout a dinner on the nationwide meeting and at last obtains an appointment with him to specific the grievances of the Gipag. “We made particular requests to him on legislative factors, however nothing occurred behind, he says. So I referred to as him out:” What the hell? ” and in the summertime of 2019, he provided to come back and work on aeronautical topics for him. “

“Higher heard within the coronary heart of energy”

As quickly as Callies is employed, the Gipag, which represents upkeep workshops, flight faculties, producers, producers, tools producers, and aerial work firms, is happy with the great resolution. “We’ve got lived via a second that might be described as necessary. A deputy got here to talk […]. He was with us due to the invitation of certainly one of our members, Jacques Callies, who turned his parliamentary assistant ”, studies the affiliation in a report published in January 2020. Certified as an “allied deputy”, Pierre Cabaré would have, in line with the Gipag, “defined that he was going to depend on the experience of our group to advance [les] recordsdata (members of the affiliation, Editor’s be aware) ”. And the writer of the ticket to prophesy: ​​”We’re lastly going to be a bit higher heard by our deputies within the coronary heart of energy”.

It’s achieved a couple of weeks later. One of many foremost issues of the Gipag on the time was to struggle in opposition to closure of border crossing points
. This drawback, talked about by Jacques Callies in its review from 2017, is then the topic of an all-out foyer by the Gipag. Its president discusses it for instance in January 2020 with a Senator LR in January 2020. Having change into a parliamentary collaborator, Jacques Callies pushes the topic to the Nationwide Meeting and writes a written question requested by MP Cabaré, in February 2020. The lobbyist’s efforts would have, in line with him, fairly paid off: “the analysis I had achieved on the impression of this mindless measure has slowed down the federal government”. The difficulty of border crossing factors additionally issues AOPA France, an affiliation of plane homeowners and pilots, of which Jacques Callies can also be a director.

Jacques Callies solely remained in workplace for one 12 months, as his contract supplied for. After his departure, the Gipag continued to have entry to the ears of elected officers. February 15, 2021, the organization was auditioned on the so-called Local weather invoice by the aeronautical and house research group of the Nationwide Meeting co-chaired by… Pierre Cabaré. Unimaginable to know what was stated there, there isn’t any public report. Anyway, the aim of this group is exactly to lift the issues of the folks we meet, explains Jean-Luc Lagleize, who co-chairs it. “It’s one thing very casual which makes it potential to advance the recordsdata”, signifies the Modem deputy of the second district of Haute-Garonne who explains that the deputies then defend these topics with the chief.

Jean-Luc Lagleize says he doesn’t understand how the connection between Gipag and the research group was made. Requested in regards to the ambivalent place of his colleague’s collaborator, the parliamentarian brushes apart the query: “It appears wholesome to me to be excited about every thing. As a result of he’s a collaborator, he wouldn’t have the fitting, like all residents, to be excited about sure topics? See if he has a monetary curiosity… ”. Jacques Callies has a private monetary curiosity within the normal aviation sector. Its journal makes use of advertisers and it organizes a coaching truthful for aeronautics professions “financed by industrial exhibitors”, he informed us.

Want specialists

“I handed a bit for a lobbyist, it is true,” admits Jacques Callies, recalling his time within the Nationwide Meeting. He nonetheless justifies his work there: “In my view, a deputy is there to defend aviation”, above all – even if we can debate it – in a district housing the headquarters and factories of Airbus.

How did the elected LREM handle the danger of battle of curiosity posed by the recruitment of his momentary worker? “To know conditions, you want specialists, whether or not in medication or elsewhere, and no stress group has ever dictated to me what to do. Nobody can blame me for something, ”says the deputy, who didn’t want to reply all of our questions.

A considerably gentle protection, in line with Elsa Foucraut, unbiased marketing consultant for the transparency of public life and the struggle in opposition to corruption. “Methods to do once you lack experience to stay unbiased? Lobbyists actually present experience, however by its nature it may be biased and deserves to be confronted with different factors of view. There are very clearly different means than taking up staff who’ve conflicts of curiosity, ”she assures us.

“We do not ask folks to be impartial. The deputy is free. So long as the worker doesn’t abuse their belief, this isn’t an issue. The affect, so long as it’s clear, doesn’t hassle me, ”declares Sylvain Waserman, Modem deputy from Bas-Rhin, vice-president of the Nationwide Meeting and writer of a report on lobbying on the meeting.

However right here, the transparency is imperfect. The aim of the knowledge out there on the web site of the Excessive Authority for the Transparency of Public Life is to spotlight interests
, to keep away from suspicion, for instance. Nevertheless, in that of Pierre Cabaré, the hyperlink between the Gipag and Jacques Callies just isn’t clear. The individual involved is introduced as “administrator of the group of industrialists of the aircraftowners and pilots affiliation”. Confusion between Gipag and AOPA? In any case, the error can’t come from the HATVP since “the declarations which seem on the positioning are generated mechanically from the declarations made by the declarants”, she signifies. Whereas the regulation obliges the deputy to speak solely the skilled actions of his collaborators, Pierre Cabaré selected to go a bit additional… whereas lastly transmitting faulty info.

Few authorized and moral guidelines are relevant to parliamentary assistants, excluding the laws on household jobs and the authorized prohibition on being paid by a consultant of pursuits registered in a register. The standards for showing on this register are, furthermore, deemed too restrictive and unsatisfactory by the anti-corruption affiliation Transparency, which wish to see skilled organizations seem there. On this case, neither the AOPA nor the Gipag seem therein. “Since, due to his proximity to the deputy-employer, a parliamentary collaborator is more likely to affect the situations of train of the mandate of the parliamentarian, it appears logical to require the collaborator to keep away from any battle of pursuits within the efficiency of her duties, ”wrote Agnès Roblot-Troizier, the previous ethics officer of the Nationwide Meeting. in a 2019 report. She had proposed adopting a code of ethics for workers. A proposal not adopted updated.