Investigators were denied access to the Élysée Palace on Tuesday as part of a probe into how an events company was awarded contracts to organise major state ceremonies.
Financial investigators went to the presidential palace in the morning, but were not allowed to enter, the national financial prosecutor Pascal Prache said.
They were told that Article 67 of the constitution makes premises linked to the presidency “inviolable”, Prache said in a statement.
The Élysée said documents requested by investigators would be sent on demand, as is usually done with judicial authorities.
The searches were ordered by two investigating judges as part of a formal probe led by Paris’s financial crimes unit, according to a judicial source cited in the French media.
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Probe widens
Investigators from the Paris police financial and anti-corruption brigade also searched the offices of the National Monuments Centre (CMN), which oversees heritage sites, and the company involved, Shortcut Events.
They also targeted the homes of individuals linked to the case, according to the prosecutor’s office.
The investigation is looking into whether Shortcut Events received preferential treatment in the awarding of public contracts, including possible favouritism, conflicts of interest, corruption and influence peddling, the prosecutor’s office said.
The probe began after an anonymous tip in late 2023, Le Monde reported.
According to the weekly newspaper Le Canard Enchaîné, investigators are trying to determine whether the company benefited from support from the CMN, the Culture Ministry or the Élysée.
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Pantheon contracts
Shortcut Events has organised induction ceremonies at the Panthéon mausoleum for more than 20 years, according to media reports.
The ceremonies honour major historical figures, including members of the French Resistance.
Each event costs around €2 million, Le Canard Enchaîné reported.
The company organised the most recent ceremony in 2024 for Missak Manouchian, an Armenian poet who died fighting the Nazi occupation of France during World War II.
Before that, French-American activist Josephine Baker became the first black woman to enter the Panthéon in 2021.
Other reporting has raised questions about how the company secured contracts over 22 years, with some in the sector suspecting tenders were “rigged” and discouraged competition, according to Le Monde, citing earlier media investigations.
In 2025, another agency was chosen for a Panthéon ceremony for the first time in years, marking a break in Shortcut Events’ run of contracts, Le Monde reported.
(with newswires)
