Clothing, leisure: LREM MP Coralie Dubost pinned for her colossal mandate expenses

The elected official of Hérault was the subject of checks by the ethics officer of the National Assembly in 2018 and 2019. In 2021, an internal investigation was triggered by the anti-harassment unit after the report of former collaborators. Shortly before the end of the legislature, Mediapart made embarrassing revelations this Friday. According to the investigative media, the deputy La République en Marche (LaREM) Coralie Dubost was pointed in a report submitted to the ethics officer of the National Assembly for inappropriate expenses within the framework of her mandate as well as for the management of her collaborators. . The elected representative of the third constituency of Hérault explains to Mediapart that she has reimbursed the costs, without however specifying which ones, or for what amount. At the Palais-Bourbon, each deputy has comfortable allowances: a basic allowance of an amount of 5623.23 euros gross, a residence allowance of 168.70 euros as well as a function allowance of 1447.98 euros, according to the rules of the lower house, “i.e. a gross monthly amount of 7239.91 euros”. Added to this is a monthly advance for mandate fees of 5,373 euros. It is on the latter that the revelations relate. “I am not a cheater” According to Mediapart, “expenses which did not fall within the scope” of the authorized expenses were noted during the examination of the accounts of the deputy Dubost . Undue expenses which “have been regularized”, assured the interested party to the media, justifying having been “poorly advised” by a former collaborator. “I was stupid (…), I am not a cheater”, she also said to our colleagues. The MP says she has “taken out a personal loan” for repayment purposes. Among the pinned costs: “monthly clothing expenses within a range of 1,500 to 2,000 euros”, according to the report completed in April 2021, still quoted by Mediapart . Spending on websites such as Private Sale, Place des Tendances or Private Showroom, or even brands such as Sézane or The Kooples. Questioned on these specific points by Mediapart, Coralie Dubost replied as follows: “There are mandate outfits and personal outfits (…), I do not put the same things in my personal life and in my mandate life”, she argued. Expenses with lingerie brands like Princesse Tam Tam or Darjeeling have also been uncovered. “Cash advances, when you need something at the last minute and you don’t have your personal card on you”, opposed the elected official from Hérault. Payment at a beach restaurant In addition to clothing expenses, there are also the payment of 194 euros to a restaurant in Palavas-les-Flots renting deckchairs for the day on the beach or in a 5-star establishment in the department. Here too, Coralie Dubost opposes an argument, that of “mandate appointments” and “working times like team building in a team”. To bail out her accounts, the deputy would have taken out several loans from the Postal Bank; a loan of 6,000 euros in December 2017 and another in 2019 when she had an overdraft of more than 7,000 euros. According to Mediapart, the authorities of the National Assembly looked into the accounts of the deputy in 2018 and 2019 randomly, and in 2021, an internal investigation by the anti-harassment unit of the Palais-Bourbon was triggered after a “collective alert” from former collaborators of the parliamentarian, who would have had at least 15 successive people in his service .The five employees at the origin of the procedure would thus have had to carry out “tasks relating to the personal sphere or at the limit of the professional and personal spheres regularly requested”, such as the fact of “monitoring (his) house staff ‘ or ‘domestic chores’. Allegations that Coralie Dubost sweeps away, assuring that it tells her “absolutely nothing” and that it is a “bygone” period.