Macron splashes public cash on a swimming pool at holiday retreat

EMMANUEL MACRON has ordered a swimming pool to be built in the grounds of the French president’s Riviera retreat to avoid prying paparazzi, sparking opposition claims he is lavishing himself with perks at the expense of the poor.

Mr Macron, 40, has already let it be known that he intends to holiday at the Brégançon fort, a 17th-century fortress overlooking the Mediterranean.

Used by Charles de Gaulle and successive presidents, it had fallen out of favour of late – notably because its private beach can be easily pictured from the sea by paparazzi.

François Hollande, Mr Macron’s predecessor, stopped using Brégançon after he and Valérie Trierweiler were snapped in swimwear. Ms Trierweiler sued the media for invasion of privacy.

Mr Macron, who wants to turn Brégançon into a French Camp David for summer meetings with foreign dignitaries, had already ordered the fort to be fitted with a new kitchen.

Now he wants a swimming pool to avoid, say Elysée sources, paparazzi prying on the president, his wife, Brigitte, and her three children. Due to the expense of digging a hole in the fort’s rocky grounds, he has opted for a pool above ground, with presidential aides saying the estimated €15,000 (£13,000) cost would come from the €150,000 (£131,000) annual budget.

However, the opposition slammed the move as insensitive at time when Mr Macron’s government is reducing housing allowance for the poor, and days after he was filmed complaining about the “crazy amounts of dosh” France pumps into welfare benefits that trap people in a cycle of poverty.

Regularly forced to deny claims he is “the president of the rich”, Mr Macron came under fire last week over reports the Elysée had spent €500,000 (£437,000) on new crockery for the presidential palace, and also over reports that he had taken a costly private Falcon jet to travel just 68 miles (110km).

Reacting to the news, Olivier Faure, head of the French Socialist Party, said it constituted a “cruel symbol”.

Mr Macron, he said, “further whittles away housing benefit for the poor and at the same time builds a swimming pool in Brégançon fort. His pool will be offshore, like his politics.”

Lydia Guirous, spokesman for the Republicans, said: “The president’s profligate behaviour is shocking at a time when he is asking ever more efforts from the French.”

The pool is by no means the first time opposition feathers have been ruffled over the cost of presidential perks.

Predecessor Nicolas Sarkozy sparked howls of complaint after it transpired he had spent €75,000 (£65,000) on two ovens for his presidential plane, dubbed Air Sarko One.