French financial prosecutors have opened an investigation into Bally Bagayoko, the La France Insoumise (LFI) mayor of Saint-Denis, over the conditions in which he was employed by the Paris transport operator RATP.
The Parquet national financier (PNF) said the preliminary inquiry was opened on August 19 for embezzlement of public funds, handling of misappropriated funds and unlawful exaction by a public official. It said investigators would carry out the necessary checks on his employment terms at the state-owned operator. No one has been charged.
The case followed an August 4 article in the satirical weekly Le Canard enchaîné, which reported that Bagayoko had held a management post at RATP alongside local elected office for around two decades. The paper said he was recruited in 2000 without a competitive examination or an interview, on flexible hours and with generous allowances.
Two complaints were then lodged with the PNF by the campaign group AC!! Anti-Corruption, which alleged embezzlement of public funds, illegal taking of interest and favouritism. Its president Marcel Claude told AFP the group was satisfied prosecutors had acted and said there had been grounds for it.
Bagayoko said through his entourage that he wanted the matter dealt with quickly, was at the disposal of the courts and remained calm about the outcome. He had earlier dismissed the allegations as an attempt to discredit him politically and argued that holding an elective mandate is not a salaried job.
RATP said Bagayoko was recruited in 2001 under its standard procedure and that its staff are private-sector employees rather than civil servants required to sit a competitive examination. It said it was ready to hand its records to investigators.
Le Canard enchaîné has since reported that close to 200 RATP employees also hold elected office, widening the affair well beyond a single town hall. LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard has given Bagayoko his full backing and cast the case as a campaign against him.
Saint-Denis, immediately north of Paris, has about 150,000 inhabitants following its merger with Pierrefitte-sur-Seine in 2025 and is the largest French town run by LFI. Bagayoko took it in the first round of the March municipal elections with 50.77 per cent of the vote.
The inquiry lands as LFI pushes towards the 2027 presidential election, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon reaching the second round in three of five scenarios in a poll published on August 24. Saint-Denis was the party’s flagship gain in the March vote.
