Prosecutor seeks dismissal in French government Covid response probe
The Court of Justice of the Republic (CJR) launched the probe in July 2020 over complaints that the government mismanaged its reaction to the virus's spread, including a lack of protective gear and unclear guidance over mask wearing.
The CJR is the only court authorised to prosecute and try former and current government members for alleged crimes and offences committed in the exercising of their official duties.
Philippe, as well as former health minister Agnes Buzyn, and her successor, Olivier Veran, were named as assisted witnesses – a status in the French legal system that falls between that of a witness and a formal suspect.
While the CJR's investigation committee has the final say, the prosecutor's request for dismissal makes a trial less likely for the politicians involved.
Philippe, a popular premier from 2017-2020, is mayor of the northern city of Le Havre and leads a right-centre party allied with, but not part of, Macron's centrist faction.
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He is the only leading contender to firmly declare his intention to stand in the 2027 presidential election, where polls show him as the strongest candidate from the centre to take on the far-right.
'The investigation found that the government had taken numerous measures to combat the Covid-19 pandemic,' said CJR public prosecutor, Remy Heitz, adding the investigation could not establish that Philippe or Veran committed wilful failure to respond to a disaster.
For her part, Agnes Buzyn had been sharply criticised for leaving her post at the start of the health crisis to run for mayor of Paris.
But she left on February 16, 2020 – a few days before an official disaster was declared in France.
'No disaster as defined by the criminal code had yet been identified on the national territory, as the first death of a Covid-19 patient in France occurred on February 25, 2020,' said the prosecutor general's office.
Buzyn had also been under investigation for endangering the lives of others, but France's Court of Cassation dropped that charge in January 2023.
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