France’s ‘First Lady’ Under Fire: Brigitte Macron Linked to €2M Donation Diversion

Freddie Ponton
21st Century Wire

For many French families, slipping a coin into the bright yellow piggy bank of the Pièces Jaunes campaign is a familiar gesture of solidarity — a small act meant to ease the hospital stays of seriously ill children. The initiative is run by the Fondation des Hôpitaux, which works to improve the daily lives of the most vulnerable young patients and, since 2019, has been chaired by France’s First Lady, Brigitte Macron. But this is where the controversy begins. According to recent revelations from the French investigative weekly Le Canard Enchaîné, part of this charitable enthusiasm may have been quietly diverted. Funds intended to bring comfort to hospitalized children may instead have helped finance e-Enfance, an association whose main task is to flag illegal online content to authorities and digital platforms — a mission far removed from the core purpose of Pièces Jaunes. The allegations have sparked sharp criticism, with some observers going so far as to suggest the existence of a discreet network of influence and digital oversight operating behind the scenes.

Between 2022 and 2025, nearly €2 million collected through the Yellow Coins operation was curiously funnelled toward e‑Enfance, a new organisation whose stated public mission is to protect minors from ‘online harms’—an array of internet risks that includes online harassment, cyber‑bullying, exploitation, and illicit content on the web. The striking detail here is that e‑Enfance is led by one Justine Atlan, who happens to be a staunch supporter of Emmanuel Macron, and a close friend of Brigitte Macron, as well as the treasurer of the think tank Renaissance Numérique. It appears that e-Enfance has received funding from the Yellow Coins operation—a campaign originally meant to aid hospitalised children, the same campaign managed and operated by Foundation des Hospitaux—again, chaired by Brigitte Macron herself.

Disguised as a means of “safeguarding youth online,” e-Enfance has gradually evolved into a centralised censorship umbrella. We’re told that its stated purpose is to notify platforms and authorities about harmful and illegal content. However, in practice, critics have argued that it filters and condemns speech which is critical of the Macron government—especially in social media posts. Some suggest that beneath the lofty terms like “hate speech,” “disinformation,” and “child protection” exists a deliberate and centralised strategy aimed at complete curation of public discourse across the digital landscape.

On paper, the move might appear as a modern adaptation of the charity to suit today’s unique digital challenges—after all, protecting children online is seen as a very laudable cause these days. But the problem runs deeper: Yellow Coins donations are specifically meant to serve “the daily lives of hospitalized children, their families, and hospital staff.” The statutes explicitly exclude financing salaries, office rentals, overhead, or training, and yet these are exactly what the e‑Enfance allocations appear to be funding.

IMAGE:Brigitte Macron visits the premises of the e-enfance association in Paris on February 8, 2023 with Pap Ndiaye, Minister of National Education and Youth, accompanied by the French foreign minister, Jean-Noel Barrot (Source David Atlan via Jol Vil)
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With these diverted funds, e‑Enfance reportedly hired eight additional “listeners,” and moved into brand‑new offices near the Paris Stock Exchange—offices inaugurated in 2023 in the presence of Brigitte Macron, and subsequently began running their seemingly elaborate training programs (see picture above). However, what had been announced as ‘training’ for 1,200 professionals was reduced to only 159 people receiving videoconference sessions. So where did the money go? Still, even with all those resources allocated, the quality of the service they claim to offer seems to have deteriorated, with the number of calls to its new ‘child hotline’ soared, reportedly tripling, while according to an article from the French outlet “Le Canard Enchainé“, the response rate dropped from around 80 % down to only 30%.

Critics say these inconsistencies indicate less about mismanagement, as they do a total betrayal of trust. The funds came from small donations given in good faith by citizens hoping to help sick children—and not to feed an organization closely tied to political power. Critics rightly speak of institutionalised favouritism and conflict of interest.

According to a report from Jewish media outlet Alliance, Justine Atlan, the director of e-Enfance is married to Jewish press and set photographer David Atlan, a person who has direct access to the Macrons. Justine Atlan, whose maiden name is “Guyomard”, is the daughter of Patrick Guyomard, a well-known French philosopher and psychoanalyst who was quoted in a 2017 article by Liberation as saying that “Sex determines absolutely nothing; the masculine and the feminine are social categories.” Her mother, Dominique Guyomard (born Lhoste), was a former member of the Freudian School in Paris, and actively participated in the founding of the Freudian Psychoanalysis Society (SPF). As American podcaster Candace Owens has pointed out on numerous occasions, Freud’s psychoanalytic theories on gender and sexuality are certainly worth studying in order to better understand the psychology and deviant proclivities which characterise these powerful and often noble circles.

IMAGE: David Atlan with French President Emmanuel Macron. (Source: David Atlan Instagram)

As for Christine du Fretay, one of the founders of E-Enfance, her professional journey reads like an unexpected arc across two very different worlds. She emerged from the elite sphere of strategic consulting at McKinsey, the American consultancy giant used by Macron’s government—which led to a massive scandal in France over his outsourcing of government departments to a foreign corporate entity (an explosive story previously covered in detail here at 21st Century Wire). She later moved swiftly into the high-stakes environment of international banking at Citibank, and later assumed leadership at HDF Finance after the death of her husband, guiding the firm through the period that would culminate in its merger with the Rothschild group, when du Fretay became the chair of Rothschild HDF Investment Solutions SA. This chapter alone places her comfortably among the most powerful figures of French finance. Yet, in 2005, she pivoted dramatically, stepping away from asset management to create e-Enfance, dedicated to online child safety. The contrast is striking: how does one transition from the rarefied world of investment strategy—to frontline advocacy for children’s digital safety? And how did her proximity to powerful financial networks, including those linked to the Rothschild apparatus, shape or inform the direction she ultimately chose? As with many top operatives in this precarious ‘child welfare’ arena, her path invites these questions.

But the concern doesn’t stop at Christine du Fretay’s unusual career path, nor does it end at e-Enfance’s financial opacity and elite institutional favoritism. Rather, a more interesting, if not troubling dimension emerges—with the recent appointment of one Véronique Béchu, the new director of e‑Enfance’s “Observatory for digital violence against minors.” Béchu is a high‑ranking former police commander who spent over two decades commanding a specialised unit at the Central Office for the Repression of Violence Against Persons (OCRVP), devoted to investigating sexual violence and exploitation of children, including leading the national unit charged with tracking online pedocriminality. Reportedly, she was also responsible for interviewing Jeffrey Epstein and Jean Luc Brunel’s potential victims in France (another story for another day…).

Her shift from public law enforcement into a heavily subsidized private “charity”, nestled within structures already under scrutiny for their proximity to elite power circles, blurs the boundary between state‑run justice and a newly formed “civil‑society” surveillance apparatus. Given her past exposure to sensitive investigations involving the most serious child‑abuse networks—including international rings (often with potential links to high‑profile or politically connected individuals), her integration into e‑Enfance on June 1, 2025, raises profound conflict‑of‑interest concerns. While her appointment would certainly add credibility to the organisation, it could also be interpreted in another way, as reputation laundering. What was once a mission for the public justice system risks morphing into private discretion, where oversight is opaque and connections to power may influence which cases are pursued, or sidelined and ignored.

More crucially though, the censorship and control of public speech online should be a paramount concern for everyone. Could e‑Enfance, initially presented as a guardian of children online, evolve into a semi‑private apparatus capable of shaping public discourse—effectively deciding which content is reported or silenced, possibly shielding or exposing individuals depending on their proximity to power? The institutional transformation will ultimately turn a structure of protection into a vehicle of influence and control.

It should also be noted that in 2021, Justine Atlan, director of e-Enfance, signed a partnership agreement with General Christian Rodriguez from France’s National Gendarmerie police force, which, according to a press release from the French Ministry of Interior, has positioned e-Enfance as the single point of contact for teenagers, parents, and their children regarding on all issues related to online digital activity and content. Hence, questions over whether this organisation is an elaborate private gatekeeping operation for other nefarious elite activities… still remain.

And let’s not lose sight of the original scandal which illuminates all of this: the Yellow Coins—whose millions of donors believed they were contributing to hospital care, and who now feel inadvertently complicit in elites’ co-opting of public compassion and using those funds to fuel an opaque vehicle for image‑management, influence peddling, and worse. Make no mistake: this scandal thus goes far beyond misallocated funds—it reveals a model by which a “charity” becomes a tool used by political networks to consolidate power, shape public perception, and exert control over digital speech.

Restoring public trust demands an urgent response: a full, independent audit of all Pièces Jaunes funds; transparent publication of beneficiary associations and detailed accounts; and a robust legal framework limiting the use of charitable donations, especially when they intersect with associations close to power that also engage in content‑moderation or surveillance. Because safeguarding children’s health should never serve as a cover for the shadowy reshaping of philanthropy into machinery of influence, or generosity into propaganda.

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