French Presidency Under Fire For Swiss Nestlé Waters Dealings

(MENAFN- Swissinfo) The rapporteur for the French Senate's bottled water inquiry committee revealed on Tuesday that the presidency had granted Swiss company Nestlé Waters access to government ministries, despite knowing about the company's long-standing misconduct. This content was published on April 9, 2025 - 11:27 5 minutes Keystone-SDA

• Français fr L'Elysée a“ouvert les portes de ministères” à Nestlé Original Read more: L'Elysée a“ouvert les portes de ministères” à Nestle

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The committee was set to hear from Alexis Kohler, the Secretary General of the Élysée Palace, who has since resigned. However, he declined to appear, citing“separation of powers”. Instead, the hearing featured a brief presentation of“74 pages of documents” sent by the Élysée, which, according to the rapporteur, highlighted the“density” of exchanges between Nestlé and the presidency.

“The President of the Republic was far from being an impregnable fortress against Nestlé's lobbying. On the contrary, contacts were frequent, and the Élysée opened the doors of several ministries to the Swiss group. Since at least 2022, the President has known that Nestlé had been cheating for years on the treatment of its Perrier and Hépar mineral waters,” said French senator Alexandre Ouizille.

+ Nestlé defends its mineral water after scandal

“The presidency knew this would have distorted competition with other mineral water companies. It was also aware of the bacteriological and even virological contamination of certain boreholes,” said the senator, quoting from internal memos. The exchanges and meetings between Nestlé and the Élysée Palace continued from 2022 until the end of 2024.

Around 100 hearings

Over the past four months, the committee has interviewed nearly 100 people, including three current and former ministers, in an effort to“establish genuine transparency in a matter that has been constantly concealed from the public, certain government departments and even the national parliament,” said its chairman Laurent Burgoa on Tuesday. The scandal erupted in early 2024, following revelations by journalists from Le Monde and franceinfo about the use of banned treatments by mineral water companies.

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This content was published on Jan 31, 2025 Bottled water producer Nestlé Waters to stand trial, accused of illegally dumping waste and maintaining unauthorised dumps.

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