Beach restaurant, clothes, … The deputy of Hérault would have used public money for personal expenses. Compromising revelations for the elected LREM a few weeks before the legislative elections, who denies having reimbursed all the costs today.
A few weeks before the legislative elections, the deputy for Hérault Coralie Dubost is the target of a Mediapart investigation into advances for mandate costs “which did not fall within the scope” of the expenses authorized by the parliamentary envelope.
Coralie Dubost was also singled out for the human management of her parliamentary collaborators, according to a report sent in 2021 to the ethics officer of the National Assembly, and of which AFP was aware. He would be accused of having imposed “tasks relating to the personal sphere”, or even remarks deemed “demeaning”.
Nevertheless, the authorities of the Assembly proceeded to inspect the accounts of Coralie Dubost, in 2018 and 2019, randomly. In 2021, a “collective alert” of former collaborators led to an internal investigation by the Parliament’s anti-harassment cell.
1,500 to 2,000 monthly clothing expenses
Regarding the costs deemed inadmissible, it would be “monthly clothing expenses within a range of 1,500 to 2,000 euros”. The amounts would have been used on websites such as Private Showroom, The Kooples or Private Sale. Facts that the elected explains in the article. “I do not put the same business in my personal life and in my life of mandate”. The expenses would be “cash advances, when you need something at the last minute and you don’t have your personal card on you”.
The report also lists payments at a beach restaurant in Palavas-les-Flots (Hérault) and at a five-star establishment. This time, Coralie Dubost advances “times of work as well as team building as a team”. Claiming to have reimbursed the incriminated costs, without specifying the exact amounts, the deputy would have contracted several loans, including one of 6,000 euros in 2017.
As a reminder, each deputy has a salary in three forms: a basic allowance of 5,623.23 euros, to which is added a residence allowance of 168.70 euros and a functional allowance of 1,447.98 euros. In addition to these sums, elected officials benefit from an “advance on mandate expenses” in the amount of 5,373 euros.