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French minister quits over luxury lobster and fine wine dinners

The French minister at the centre of a scandal over the dinners he hosted with giant lobsters and €500-a-bottle wines has quit blaming a "media lynching".

Published: 16 July 2019 15:42 CEST

French minister quits over luxury lobster and fine wine dinners

Francois de Rugy, pictured wit his wife Sevrine, has resigned. Photo: AFP

Environment minister François de Rugy had been under fire over claims that the publicly-funded luxury dinners he hosted had little connection to his political work.

Only at the weekend he had vowed to resist pressure to quit and instead stay on as minister.

But on Tuesday he resigned blaming a “media lynching” that prevented him from now doing his job.

In a lengthy statement on his Facebook page, de Rugy wrote: “The attacks and media lynching have driven me today to take the necessary step – which everyone will understand.

“The attacks and media lynching targeting my family force me to take the necessary step back,” said de Rugy, who also held the post of minister of state which made him the number two in government after Prime Minister Edouard Philippe.

“The effort required to defend my name means that I am not able to serenely and efficiently carry out my mission. I presented my resignation to the prime minister this morning,” he added.

Government spokeswoman Sibeth Ndiaye then announced that the resignation had been accepted.

The investigative news site Mediapart website had said the minister in Emmanuel Macron's La Republique En Marche party had hosted a dozen extravagant dinners from 2017-2018 when he the head of the French parliament.

François de Rugy announced his resignation on his Facebook page

De Rugy did not deny hosting the dinners at his former residence, but vigorously rejected the claim they had been purely social events not linked to his job.

The dinners reportedly included champagne, giant lobsters and a €500 bottle of wine that had been signed by Prince Charles.

The pressure further mounted when he was accused of renting a subsidised council flat despite being on a higher salary than would be allowed, but on Friday he defiantly vowed that he would not resign.

He told French TV station BFMTV he has “never paid more than €30 for a bottle of wine”, doesn't eat lobster because of a “shellfish allergy”, and avoids champagne, which “gives him a headache”.

Best detail in story about calls for resignation of French minister François de Rugy because of his taxpayer-funded gourmet dinners is that he was serving £500 plus bottles of Entente Cordiale Mouton Rothschild 2004 signed by Prince Charles. pic.twitter.com/EWHhyYDjdB

— Peter Allen (@peterallenparis) 10 July 2019

But on Tuesday Mediapart's chief Edwy Plenel said the resignation had been triggered by new elements of website's investigation that accused de Rugy, a member of France's green group EELV, of spending his MP's allowance on paying his political party fees – something forbidden in the rules.

“We are doing our work in the public interest,” said Plenel after the minister's resignation. Rugy plans to sue the investigative site Mediapart for defamation accusing it of a desire “to harm, smear and destroy.”

The scandal had been embarrassing for French president Macron who since his election had been labelled a “president for the rich” and was accused of being out of touch with the concerns of ordinary French people.

De Rugy, who is from an aristocratic background, is a former environmental activist who joined Macron's party during his successful bid for the presidency in 2017.

He became ecology minister after the resignation of the high-profile figure Nicolas Hulot who quit the government after becoming frustrated with the government's lack of progress on green reforms.

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Cohabitation

The far-right Rassemblement National of three-time presidential candidate Marine Le Pen and current party leader Jordan Bardella are tipped to be the party with most seats after the second round on July 7th.

If the RN and its allies did secure a majority in the Assemblée Nationale – and current polling suggests this is doubtful – Macron would find himself in a “cohabitation“, in which the president and government are from opposing parties.

Post-war France has experienced three such forced marriages. All were between the left and the centre-right with the last from 1997-2002 between President Jacques Chirac and Socialist premier Lionel Jospin.

Cohabitation: What happens in France’s political ‘forced marriages’?

A cohabition between the Macron and his far-right arch-enemies would likely be a much unhappier affair.

While the far-right would be able to implement part of its domestic programme, on, for example, curtailing immigration, only the president can call a referendum or trigger a vote on constitutional changes.

The president, who usually sets foreign and defence policy, could also find his hands tied if the RN appointed nationalist defence and foreign ministers opposed to his worldview.

Coalition

France has spurned coalitions since the post-war 4th Republic (1946-1958) when the country went through 22 governments in 12 years.

Since losing his parliamentary majority in 2022, Macron has sought to cobble together alliances in parliament on a vote-by-vote basis or to force through legislation without a vote rather than form a pact with another party.

The RN or the left could try do the same if they fall short of a majority but a minority government of the far-right or left would likely fail to pass a vote of no confidence.

Aware of the risks, RN leader Bardella has said he will refuse to become prime minister unless he wins an outright majority.

Macron’s camp hopes that in the event of a hung parliament it could form a coalition with moderates of the left and right.

As part of its outreach to possible allies, Macron’s party has not entered candidates in 67 constituencies where centre-right or centre-left candidates are running.

But Macron has limited his options by putting the hard-left La France Insoumise (LFI) — the dominant force in the NFP — on a par with the far-right in what he calls the country’s “extremes”. He accuses LFI of anti-Semitism, which it rejects.

Caretaker government

Another option would be for Macron to appoint a technocratic non-partisan government which all parties could get behind.

Camille Bedock, a political scientist at the Emile Durckheim centre in Bordeaux, cites the example of Italy, where respected former European Central Bank chief Mario Draghi formed a national unity government in 2021 when Italy was in turmoil. It lasted a year-and-a-half.

Bedock said Macron could also decide to leave the current government headed by his party’s Gabriel Attal in place in a caretaker capacity for a year. He could then call new elections.

This would have the benefit of ensuring continuity through the Olympic Games (July 26th – August 11th) when the country will be under intense global scrutiny.

Whether the far-right or left would support such a move, which would effectively buy Macron time to try turn around his presidency, is highly uncertain.

Macron resigns

The most dramatic scenario would see Macron resign if faced with the prospect of being neutered by the far right or the hard left.

Le Pen, who is expected to try succeed Macron in 2027 presidential polls, has warned that he “will have no choice but to resign” in the event of a “political crisis”.

Macron has vowed to remain on office until the end of his second term in 2027, whatever the outcome.

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