In Paris, social housing is normally allocated on income, family situation and how long you have been waiting. According to prosecutors, one senator allegedly added a more intimate criterion. Francis Szpiner, LR senator and former mayor of the 16th arrondissement, was charged on 9 July 2026 with passive corruption.

Social housing for “very particular favours”

According to France 3 Régions, Szpiner is suspected of offering a social-housing allocation in exchange for sexual favours while he was mayor of the 16th. The alleged acts took place in Paris between 4 February and 30 May 2023. A woman was also charged, on 9 July, with active corruption.

A Parisian apartment building.
Photo: Wikimedia Commons — CC BY 4.0 — The allocation of Paris social housing is at the heart of the case.

An immunity that worked… by default

Held in police custody on 7 July, the senator was reportedly not placed under judicial supervision because the Senate failed to process the request to lift his parliamentary immunity in time — a procedural detail that highlights the grey zones between justice and parliamentary status.

😏 The cynical take
Social housing is allocated on paperwork. In this alleged version, one very different box had to be ticked — one the official form, curiously, does not include.

Magouilles & Compagnie's verdict

Social housing turned into alleged currency, a senator and a complainant both now charged: the case is as legally heavy as it is humanly sensitive. The courts must establish the facts; until then, presumption of innocence for all.