TheChek News Flow

Summary of La Lettre - February 5, 2026

France, Norway, and Belgium have officially signaled their disagreement with Stacy Cummings, head of the NSPA (NATO Support and Procurement Agency), following accusations of corruption, favoritism, and investigations. French Admiral Hervé Lamielle formalized a veto against a surveillance council project that would have unconditionally supported Cummings, despite an internal investigation launched in May 2025.

The affair dates back to revelations by former HR Director Geneviève Machin, who exposed irregularities and alleged that NSPA’s leadership and entourage had requested investigators not examine certain facts, supposedly corruption-related. Europeans are demanding greater transparency and accountability, particularly to protect Robert Reddington (American-Luxembourgish) who risks being ousted for supporting the investigation.

A new French HR Director candidate, Johann Schimek, had his nomination contested by Cummings, who was accused of favoritism in an audit report. Norway and Belgium published a “breaking silence” statement demanding time to review the new HR Director selection. The matter has become politically sensitive with parliamentary questions raised in France, Germany, Belgium, and Luxembourg.

Elbit Continues Its Programs

These setbacks come as corruption investigations intensify, with NSPA leadership refusing to disclose company names and statuses under Belgian and American judicial investigation. La Lettre and partners (Le Soir, Knack, Follow the Money) revealed that Israeli defense giant Elbit Systems and Romanian fuel supplier Global Defense Logistics (GDL) had both been suspended from Alliance bidding in July pending investigations. However, these companies’ names remain absent from NSPA’s official blacklist.

Defense industry groups are now seriously questioning whether to continue selling equipment through NSPA given its troubled relationship with justice.

POLITICS

Le Palais Bourbon Launches Race for AI

The National Assembly, which lagged behind the Senate on this topic, now wants to accelerate work on AI and its uses. Deputies Denis Masséglia and Nicolas Bonnet have been tasked with examining their colleagues’ and Palais Bourbon staff’s AI needs.

The duo will first inventory Palais Bourbon requirements before proposing short and long-term tools. Some parliamentarians have already subscribed to public generative AI services like ChatGPT or OpenAI and Le Chat de Mistral AI. The IT directorate (DSI) has not yet systematized or deployed AI solutions. Internal purchases and developments can be considered for in-house software. The institution is notably considering refurbishing Eloï, its legislative amendment tracking software.

The deputies plan to meet their Senate counterparts, where AI projects are already more advanced. Significantly, Alain Marc (Parti radical), vice-president of Luxembourg’s upper chamber, established a delegation titled “Digital Technologies, Cybersecurity and Artificial Intelligence” in May 2025, complete with an AI charter.

The Senate finalized a partnership last year with French company Magic LEMP for an AI solution to draft meeting minutes. After an experimental phase, the tool entered production in autumn 2025, enabling increased meeting coverage by elected officials.

Carrefour France Attempts to Divest About Ten Cora Hypermarkets

Carrefour France CEO Alexandre de Palmas is circulating lists of about ten Cora hypermarkets to competitors to test their interest. The chain acquired in July 2024 is proving more challenging than expected.

De Palmas has developed gray hair since integrating Cora hypermarkets into his portfolio. Carrefour France had already struggled to stabilize the hypermarket branch Carrefour, transferring about fifteen stores annually to franchisees. The 60 new Cora giants, 49 still in the red more than a year after rebranding, have not yet turned profitable.

Thanks to the Competition Authority, three of these giant stores – in Amphion-les-Bains, Pavillons-sous-Bois, and Villiers-Semeuse – will soon be sold to competitor Coopérative U. According to La Lettre, other ex-Cora hypermarkets could soon leave Carrefour’s fold. For several weeks, new hypermarket director Christophe Rabatel’s teams have been establishing lists of about ten stores each, which Carrefour is discreetly proposing for sale to competitors Coopérative U, Auchan, E.Leclerc, and Intermarché.

This resembles sales of lame duck stores previously conducted by Intermarché and Auchan following their Casino and hypermarket acquisitions. Approached by La Lettre, Carrefour declined to comment. If not sold, these stores might not close but could transition to franchise management, like historic Carrefour stores.

End of Spectacular Promotions

Former Cora Match group’s 60 hypermarkets had revenue of €3.4 billion (excluding fuel) in 2023. Since then, Carrefour no longer reports figures, but sales are still contracting by over 5% this year according to sources. Several factors explain this decline: Carrefour invested heavily in shelf price reductions, approximately 10% annually, mechanically lowering revenue. Traditional Cora customers were disrupted by the sudden halt to massive promotional operations at stores, repeated four times annually, allowing up to a quarter of annual revenue. At Carrefour, promotions are more evenly distributed throughout the year. Last summer’s IT system migration and temporary logistics platform closures also caused significant shelf stock disruptions.

Conversely, price reductions, new Carrefour brand products, and initial renovations are beginning to attract customers back, though still disrupted, with checkout traffic rebounding late in the year.

Return to Equilibrium Highly Uncertain

It’s uncertain this will suffice to restore results, especially since Carrefour discovered it needed to reinvest more than anticipated at acquisition in technical equipment like lift trucks and refrigerated furniture. The major €250 million investment envelope planned for renovating Cora hypermarkets and Match supermarkets could prove insufficient.

Carrefour will publish annual results on February 17. CEO Alexandre Bompard will present his new three-year strategic plan the following day. In the first half, the group published an 8% operational result decline in France, totaling €264 million. The negative impact of Cora Match integration then stood at €80 million.

COMEX ET CA

Jean-Dominique Senard Settles Accounts with Luca de Meo and HATVP

Renault’s president, in a report published by Institut Montaigne, revisits two recent episodes of his career, denouncing certain executives’ stock market obsession and the tendency toward “voyeurism” stimulated by ministerial wealth disclosure behind the veil of probity.

Principal contributor to the report Responsabilité: plaidoyer pour l’action published Wednesday by Institut Montaigne, Jean-Dominique Senard inserted two highly personal messages addressed to Turc executives. As Renault board chairman, the patrician endured salary demands from Italian Luca de Meo, his CEO from 2020-2025, who crossed the line by demanding his compensation be indexed to results showing lackluster performance until his successor François Provost was recognized by markets. The report’s co-signer, like a coded message, notes that “the predominance of annual bonuses indexed to immediate results or stock price tends to privilege short-term financial performance, sometimes to the detriment of consolidating good long-term results.”

Co-signing the document with former MP Jean-Loup Bourlanges, Senard believes it advisable to combat this bias so executives remain “solidary with their mandate’s balance beyond their effective presence.” He recommends “evolving regulatory frameworks or governance codes (Afep-Medef), imposing on listed major companies contractual postponement of variable compensation fractions and limiting anticipated closure of long-term investment plans (LTI) upon departure.” To ensure proper understanding, the boss specifies it would become “more difficult for an executive to leave their functions with integrity of gains if negative consequences of their management are revealed after their departure.” Upon joining Kering, de Meo reportedly negotiated a €20 million welcome bonus.

Matignon’s Broken Dream

Another recent episode in his personal life stimulates the former Total and Michelin boss’s reformist audacity. In August 2024, when Emmanuel Macron sought a prime minister to confront the Assemblée nationale following dissolution, discussions led to believe Jean-Dominique Senard that the path to Matignon was open. Several media outlets then portrayed a socially-minded boss sharing wealth distribution in business, who could have led an expert government or seated former union leader Laurent Berger. If the choice ultimately fell on Michel Barnier, Figaro journalist Louis Hausalter affirms in his book La Foudre et les Cendres, published by Éditions de l’Observatoire in 2025, that the septuagenarian “feared consequences for his family from such public exposure, particularly the impact of publishing his wealth declaration as CAC 40 chairman.”

In the Institut Montaigne report, the High Authority for Transparency in Public Life (HATVP) is accused of “procedural judicial activism” and “voyeurism.” “Extended prerogatives now dissuade certain experienced profiles from rejoining public service – out of modesty, fear of exposing their personal life or restricting future employability in the private sector,” Jean-Dominique Senard writes. Any resemblance to existing or past facts is not coincidental.

CONSEIL

Soitec’s “Resigner” Pierre Barnabé Rejoins Dassault Systèmes

Pierre Barnabé is making another professional move. The resigned CEO of Soitec will rejoin Dassault Systèmes in April as operations director. This “Sup de Co” Rouen graduate announced his departure from the semiconductor manufacturer six months ago for “personal reasons,” succeeded by Pascal Daloz who had held the general director position at Dassault Systèmes for over two years. Leaving Soitec, the executive left behind a somewhat mixed record. Two months ago, he was reportedly being considered for Sopra Steria’s CEO position, ultimately going to Rajesh Krishnamurthy.

Arriving during a governance crisis in March 2022, Pierre Barnabé himself triggered another controversy at Soitec in June 2025. The executive had attracted employee ire by discovering a resolution proposing significant compensation package increases as CEO, based on underwhelming commercial results. Soitec’s board then found a solution by postponing discussions to fiscal year 2026-2027.

Pierre Barnabé began his career on Silicon Valley’s hat racks as capital risk manager at Thomson, later becoming Thales. After a decade at Alcatel-Lucent, the rugby enthusiast then joined SFR Business. Vivendi family member executive demands had pushed him to rejoin Bull group in 2013 as delegated CEO. The company was later acquired by Atos. Within the IT group, Pierre Barnabé led highly coveted BDS (business data security) activities, a division once promised for IPO but derailed like other Atos group activities by financial restructuring turmoil.

Amazon’s Intense Lobbying Against Darcos Law and Book Market Regulation

Amazon’s European public affairs director Yohann Bénard will open debates at a February 11 colloquium organized by Boury cabinet’s event subsidiary Tallon & associés at Maison de la Chimie. Amazon’s financing of this event mixing parliamentarians, lobbyists, and cultural executives forced Senator Laure Darcos (Horizons) to cancel her participation.

Amazon’s offensive against book market regulation will take the path of Maison de la Chimie salons on February 11, two steps from the Assemblée nationale, in Paris’s 7th arrondissement. The American e-commerce giant is financing the second edition of “Culture and Society Encounters” bringing together parliamentarians, lobbyists, and selected cultural executives by M&M Conseil, influential cabinet Boury, Tallon & associés’ event subsidiary. Amazon Europe’s public affairs director Yohann Bénard will be honored at the first roundtable titled “La culture au défi du pouvoir d’achat” alongside Jean-Marc Dumontet, entertainment producer and close to Emmanuel Macron, and SAS Pass Culture executive president Laurence Tison-Vuillaume.

This theme is particularly opportune for Amazon, which rails against regulatory restrictions on book sales and deliveries under reader access pretext. Company owned by Jeff Bezos is increasingly determined to challenge the unique book pricing law awaiting Conseil d’État decision after contesting the legality of a measure requiring it to charge customers a minimum €3 shipping fee.

Initial program for the encounters, where Google and cultural collective management organization Spedidam are also partners, indicated until late January Senator Laure Darcos (Horizons) would participate in a “prospective session” on cultural sector challenges in the AI and algorithms era. According to information, Essonne native however cancelled her participation with Paul Boury after learning about Amazon’s event financing, which will preside over Renaissance and Horizons deputies Éric Bothorel and Jérémie Patrier-Leitus. It was inconceivable for the senator to participate in these encounters alongside lobbyist Yohann Bénard, whose company seeks every means to circumvent existing regulation.

“Competition Distortion”

The situation is extremely tense between the senator engaged in book industry regulation and Amazon. In 2021, Laure Darcos had a law adopted to regulate shipping fees protecting bookstores against e-commerce giants. Before the vote, the American platform charged its customers new book order shipping fees of one cent, the legislator having omitted to set a minimum amount.

The Senate culture commission vice-president believes Amazon’s arguments, presenting itself as rurality and modest communities’ defender, are largely biased. According to the senator, Amazon’s main market is actually in large urban areas, with favored socio-professional categories capable of absorbing delivery rates.

Since the Darcos law implementation in October 2023, Jeff Bezos’s firm, like its competitors, must no longer offer free shipping. It must charge customers shipping fees of at least €3 per online book order, for any basket under €35. The measure aims to encourage urban readers to visit their neighborhood bookstore or physical book retailers like Fnac or Cultura. According to a government evaluation report from October 2025, this bookstore protection measure has moreover “achieved its objectives of promoting retail diversity,” “without eliminating certain social categories.”

Invoking consumer protection, Amazon has attempted for three years to torpedo the law with parliamentarians and the culture ministry. The firm even decided to circumvent the law since 2025, claiming authorization to deliver new books free when deposited in automatic consignment boxes (“lockers”) located in commercial galleries or parking lots. A gray area the legislator hadn’t anticipated, resulting in “competition distortion among book distribution networks” denounced by the Syndicat de la librairie française (SLF), Syndicat des distributeurs de loisirs culturels, and Fnac.

The platform returned to attack in October 2025, offering its customers a 5% discount on books ordered on its site and delivered via locker, among 300,000 eligible pickup points in France. This discount corresponds to the maximum authorized by law on unique book pricing (called Lang law) enacted in 1981 for new books.

Beyond legal means, Amazon also deploys opinion campaigns against the Darcos law. In a December 2025 AFP tribune, Frédéric Duval, its departing France CEO on February 1st, targeted the Darcos law by imputing it with an over €100 million shipping fee surcharge acquired by consumers across all platforms – a figure difficult to verify as calculated “using Amazon’s sectoral and internal data,” which the firm carefully avoids publishing.​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​​