François de Rugy said events with lobster and vintage wine were linked to his work

The French environment minister is under pressure after an investigative website alleged he hosted lavish social dinners of lobster and fine wines paid for by the taxpayer when he was parliament speaker as well as carrying out expensive renovations of his official residence.

The investigative website Mediapart said François de Rugy had hosted a dozen luxury dinners between 2017 and 2018 at hisofficial residence in a historic building in Paris.

The website, which published a photo of a platter of giant lobsters on a candle-lit table at one dinner, said the meals for between 10 and 30 guests were events for De Rugy’s social circle organised by his wife, a journalist at the celebrity magazine Gala.

On the menu there were luxuries such as expensive shellfish and champagne, and vintage wines from the French parliament wine-cellar costing up to €500 a bottle.

De Rugy, a former environmental activist with an aristocratic background who joined Macron’s centrist party during the 2017 presidential campaign, did not deny the dinners took place but insisted they were linked to his work as speaker and not social events.

“These were not dinners between friends. These were informal working dinners with people who have relations with a political authority,” De Rugy said, adding the Mediapart investigation was “misleading” and “tendentious”.

The row is damaging because De Rugy is currently leading Emmanuel Macron’s environmental policy at a time when the government is under pressure to cut costs and waste, after being accused of doing too little to combat the climate emergency.

It also comes as Macron and his centrist government look to recover from more than six months of gilets jaunes (yellow vests) anti-government protests sparked by economic inequality and claims that French politicians are out-of-touch with ordinary people.

De Rugy published a long written response on his Facebook page on what he called the “attacks against me”, saying he was devoted to “transparency” in political life. He said the “informal dinners” were linked to his job as speaker, and that he had used the events to engage with people from civil society to inform his “variety of public work” as parliament speaker.

The government spokeswoman, Sibeth Ndiaye ,said De Rugy had the support of the prime minister and president. She added de Rugy’s work as parliament speaker would have sometimes required various forms of contact with people from civil society.

Aurore Bergé, a politician from Macron’s party La République En Marche, said De Rugy had given a list of all his dinner guests to the parliament’s ethics committee who would check if they were legitimate. If they were not legitimate, he would have to pay back the bill himself.

Mediapart published a second investigation alleging that De Rugy and his wife had carried out €63,000 of refurbishment work paid for by the taxpayer on his official residence at the environment ministry for “comfort”. The website said the costly refurbishment, which included paintwork, carpet-fitting and the construction of fitted cupboards was not essential.

De Rugy said in a written statement that the renovation work had been necessary for the apartments in a historic building, because some rooms were in poor repair. He said that overall he had lowered costs at the ministry.

Nicole Klein, chief of staff in De Rugy’s office at the environment ministry, stepped down this week after Mediapart alleged she had kept a social housing apartment in Paris at a time when she no longer lived in the capital. Klein told the website her housing situation was legal.



