It did not take more than two days of controversy for Coralie Dubost to withdraw from political life. The LREM deputy from Hérault announced this Sunday afternoon on social networks that she “will not be a candidate for re-election” next June. And this for “protect the child that[elle] gate of all the vicissitudes of exposure and political life.. In this case, the consequences of the revelations by Mediapart Friday April 29 of an internal report of the National Assembly relating to its expenses of expenses of mandate. Dated spring 2021, the document lists the “expenses that did not fall within the scope” authorized expenses, with bills that are surprising to say the least.
‘Unjust attacks’
We thus learn that a note of 3,300 euros was settled in October 2018 on online clothing sales sites with public money. Just like 2,500 euros the following month spent at Sézane or The Kooples. But also, in 2018, some 500 euros of public money used for lingerie. But still a bill of 194 euros settled in September 2018 on a hut on a beach in Palavas-les-Flots which rents deckchairs. Or reservations at a restaurant in the Domaine de Verchant, a 5-star “Relais & Château” on the heights of Montpellier. Expenses that the elected representative considered legitimate, presenting them as “representation expenses” but which had been making a lot of noise for 48 hours.
To silence this din – what she considers to be “unjust attacks” – the chosen one therefore decided to hang up the tricolor scarf. “Also came the time for me to withdraw from political life and devote myself to my family”, writes in a press release Coralie Dubost. It is not only a question of protecting her person and her loved ones: Coralie Dubost also believes that the reproaches to which she is subject “serve [s]on political group, electoral deadlines, and more generally, democracy”. “I refuse to be the instrument of an anti-parliamentary cabal”she continues.
Not sure, however, that the entire institution of the National Assembly was tainted by these revelations: after all, they show that the public expenditure control bodies work. On the other hand, it is certain that it was a very bad way for LREM to embark on the battle for the legislative elections. It will therefore be without Coralie Dubost in the third district of Hérault.