French minister quits after claims of gold hairdryer and €500 wines
FRANCE’S environment minister was forced to resign yesterday amid outrage over reports of lavish taxpayerfunded dinners, with wines costing up to £500 a bottle – as he was cutting spending as the parliament speaker.
Claims that François de Rugy also spent public money on his wife’s goldplated hairdryer and refurbishing his official residence in a magnificent 18th century property caused further anger.
It comes as Emmanuel Macron, the French president, tries to restore his authority after more than eight months of “yellow-vest” protests over income inequality and claims that France’s political class is a metropolitan elite out of touch with ordinary people.
Mr de Rugy resigned a day after Mr Macron declined to sack him, saying that he should be given an opportunity to defend himself against the allegations published by Mediapart, an investigative website.
“The attacks and the media lynching directed against me and my family have led me to take the necessary distance,” Mr de Rugy said. “I have prioritised the sense of responsibility to the president and the government.” He denied any wrongdoing.
He said the reports that he and his wife, a journalist on a gossip magazine, had hosted lobster dinners for their friends were part of a smear campaign, and claimed that entertaining was part of his official duties. He also said he was suing the website for defamation.
Mediapart’s charges related largely to Mr de Rugy’s 15 months as speaker of the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, in 2017 and 2018.
In an echo of Britain’s MPS’ expenses scandal, the Left-leaning website said he spent €63,000 (nearly £57,000) of public money refurbishing his official residence, while renting a state-owned flat in his home town, Nantes, intended for people on low incomes.
Le Parisien newspaper then claimed that he spent more than £450 on a Dyson hairdryer coated with gold leaf.
Another daily, Ouest-france, reported that he had hosted a dinner for energy industry lobbyists which he insisted on keeping out of public records.
Among the vintage wines he reportedly served to guests at dinners was a £500 Mouton-rothschild 2004 claret, produced to mark the centenary of the Entente Cordiale between Britain and France, whose label bears an endorsement by Prince Charles.
A report by the website yesterday alleged that Mr de Rugy illegally used his MP’S expense allowance to pay some of his membership fees to the political party Europe Ecology – The Greens.
It comes as the president is struggling to bolster his green credentials.
For nearly a week, Mr de Rugy resisted mounting public indignation as politicians from Mr Macron’s party anonymously told reporters of their disgust, but the latest Mediapart report was “the final straw,” according to government sources.
He said he was resigning to defend himself against “falsehoods” reported by the media.