Paris: Jean-Louis Missika, former strategist of Anne Hidalgo, in turmoil

After his departure from the Paris town hall, the former Urban planning deputy took responsibility for two companies. He has just resigned. The parquet is seized with suspicions of conflict of interest.

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Time is spoiled for Jean-Louis Missika, one of the main deputies of Anne Hidalgo between 2014 and 2020, the campaign codirector for his re-election at the Paris town hall. Under pressure, the former boss of Parisian urbanism comes in a few days abandoning the missions he had accepted in two companies in the sector, Novaxia, a specialist group of “urban recycling”, and the Foncière Gecina. In both cases, the Code of Ethics of the City of Paris considered that these responsibilities in the private sector had a risk of conflict of interest, according to separate opinions rendered Friday 5 and on Monday, November 22.

The National Financial Prosecutor’s Office was seized on 19 November by a political opponent, Danielle Simonnet (France unsuitable), under Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure. It considers that the missions of the former assistant are “likely to take up conflicts of interest or even illegal interest. Justice will say if there is investigation. But the case is already based on the issue of activities that old elected officials may or do, after leaving their political functions. Which positions can they occupy, where can they work, without it weighing a suspicion of their previous mandate? Year after year, the rules and their application are reinforcing.

After the re-election of Anne Hidalgo, of which he was one of the prime contractors, Jean-Louis Missika decided, at age 69, to take his political retirement while returning to some of his previous activities, starting with teaching and writing books. In 2021, he also accepts the proposals made by several companies he had rubbed shoulders. It is thus last June, he agrees to join the “mission committee” of Novaxia, whose nine members must serve as a “lighthouse” and guide the company by “identifying the weak signals of the market”, Explains Joachim Azan, President of the real estate group. The first meeting was held mid-October. The former assistant is not paid but an annual fastening of 1000 euros – to which he ended up renounces him.

Previously, in the spring, he had agreed to take the presidency of the “Guidance and Prospective Committee” of Gecina, one of the largest lands in Paris, which holds and manages some 20 billion euros of assets ( Offices and dwellings). It is a question of “feeding the reflection of Gecina on the great dynamics of the market, in full transformation, of real estate”, according to the group. This time, the activity is remunerated: 15 000 euros the meeting (annexed work included), for its president. Two have already taken place, mid-April, the second beginning of October. On the agenda: the impact of digital on construction and climate emergency.

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/Media reports.