A letter on headed paper from the International Olympic Committee (IOC), signed in Sarzeau, a municipality where he was mayor for thirteen years, in Morbihan, where he now chairs the departmental council… David Lappartient’s candidacy letter for the presidency of the French The Committee National Olympic and Sports Federation (CNOSF), sent to members of the body’s board of directors on Friday, June 16, perfectly illustrates its ability to stack political and sports hats. Mr. Lappartient is the favorite to succeed Brigitte Henriques, who resigned, as head of the CNOSF, during the elections scheduled for June 29th. Emmanuelle Bonnet Oulaldj, president of the Federation of Sport and Gymnastics (FSGT), is the only other candidate so far declared.
The 50-year-old Breton currently has five sporting mandates: president of the International Cycling Union (UCI), member of the IOC, the CNOSF, the board of directors of the Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games Paris 2024 and the foundation board of the World Agency anti-doping. He also holds five local mandates in Morbihan: president of the departmental council, of the Compagnie des ports du Morbihan, of the semi-public company Atout Ports, of the regional natural park (PNR) of the Gulf of Morbihan and municipal councilor of Agglomeration valves. Unmanageable? According to him, Mr. Lappartient works “85 hours per week”that is, about twelve hours a day, seven days a week.
This overloaded schedule leads some CNOSF members to question the relevance of Mr. Lappartient’s candidacy. The risk of conflict of interest that this accumulation generates could also worry the ethics committee of the Cnosf, in charge of studying the candidacies for the presidency, as well as its tormented ties with a Russian-Turkmen oligarch, denounced by The world May 24th.
This fear seems legitimate in the light of the report sent on February 28 by the Anticor Morbihan association to the public prosecutor of Vannes, Maxime Antier. According to this report, of which The world had a copy, Mr. Lappartient would have been complicit in acts of taking an illegal interest in his management of the regional natural park of the Gulf of Morbihan. Specifically, between 2015 and 2019, the PNR would have signed contracts for over 30,000 euros, concerning the production of periodical publications on the natural park, with Bruno Perera, husband of its then director, Monique Cassé.
Interweaving of functions
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