The former environment minister and government number two François de Rugy, who resigned on Tuesday July 16th, made regular and apparently excessive use of chauffeur-driven ministerial cars, according to Mediapart's information.
De Rugy, who quit after a string of revelations by Mediapart about his lifestyle and use of public money, is said to have used the government cars when he was President of the National Assembly to transport close relatives and his children for entirely personal trips as Le Parisien newspaper has already reported. Now Mediapart and the western France daily Ouest-France understands that de Rugy used these cars both when at the National Assembly and later as environment minister to go from Paris to the Loire-Atlantique département or county in western France for weekends.
In particular, and perhaps curiously for a minister for the environment, de Rugy is said to have taken the train to Nantes while the driver separately drove the ministerial car down to the city to meet him at the other end and drive him around during his stay.
On Sunday July 14th, two days before his resignation, the minister's office justified his use of cars on the grounds of security. “François de Rugy has a level of protection that is appropriate for the major threat level [editor's note, set by UCLAT, the Unité de Coordination de la Lutte Anti-terroriste (UCLAT) the anti-terrorist coordination unit] against him,” said his office. “The vehicles are an integral part of the protection measures needed to ensure the security of people facing this level of threat. On an operational level it's about being able to evacuate the person in case of a known threat, whether this is during a private or public event. It's also about being able to get back to ministerial office or any other place where he could be taken urgently if required. Being accompanied by security officials requires the use of a vehicle with special equipment (revolving light, police number plates...) and the presence of a driver,” said his ministerial office.
For these security reasons, François de Rugy's trips “whether private or public and official, as is the case for all political figures who have the same level of protection, took place systematically with a vehicle and a driver from the National Assembly when he was its president. The same goes with the Ministry [of the Environment] where all his trips by car are with a ministerial vehicle and driver,” said his office.
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However, when Mediapart spoke with five former ministers who had all held major posts under presidents François Hollande or Emmanuel Macron, they regarded this use of cars with ministerial drivers as excessive. Meanwhile one prefect – prefects are regional state officials - told Ouest-France newspaper that prefectures always made a vehicle and driver available for all ministers - except the prime minister - for trips outside Paris. So why was that not done in the case of François de Rugy? “The Loire-Atlantique prefecture cannot – apart from on exceptional occasions – provide a vehicle to ensure his security,” replied the minister's office on Sunday.
“When I made an official trip by train, the prefect came to fetch me at the station with his car, that's the done thing,” one former minister told Mediapart. “And when I went on holiday I drove my own car. I've never heard of practices like you're describing. If Rugy is particularly at threat he'll take a car with his security officials not the train. And if he takes the train, well, he doesn't need to get his car and driver to come, it's as simple as that.”
Former ministers who had constituencies or a home in the regions tell a similar story. “To get home I took the train with a security official. He returned to Paris and I took my car which was parked in the car park,” said another former minister who states – without being prompted – that he settled a bill for around 10,000 euros when he left his ministry to pay for the private meals he had at the department that he did not have time to have elsewhere. One of the revelations about François de Rugy concerned how he and his wife Séverine regularly organised grand dinner parties with fine wines and food provided for by the public purse.
“I did sometimes travel home by train but not very often because of the timetable,” said a third former minister. “The [ministerial] driver obviously stayed in Paris. I have also gone home by car and returned on the train.” He then pointed out: “After the terrorist attacks of 2015 [editor's note, in France] the driver was no longer allowed to return to Paris, he had stay with me for security reasons or for an emergency. They're not ordinary drivers, they are taught and trained to react quickly in any situation.”
A fourth minister, when told of de Rugy's use of the ministerial cars, said: “I never did that. What is the point? You just have to ask for a car from the prefecture.” he added: “I was always very wary about the trappings of office, you can easily get intoxicated by them.”
A former chief of staff to several senior ministers said he had seen such practices before but “rarely”. He continued: “It depends on the minister. Some eminent and very at risk figures in the [French] state, such as the prime minister or the ministers for the interior and defence, might have recourse to these types of facilities at certain periods, given their timetable and if they have emergencies to manage. But a minister for the environment....no. If you go to the constituency or to see your family you don't take a car with a driver.”
François de Rugy also used the resources of the National Assembly and then the Ministry of the Environment to drive his family around. His ministerial office said on Sunday: “On his private trips he is indeed regularly accompanied in his vehicle by his wife, his children, his wife's son or anyone else – whether connected or not to his official duties - and sometimes also on official trips. Moreover, in exceptional circumstances a common journey in Paris has sometimes started or ended with his wife and/or children being on their own [in the car], for reasons of efficiency and security.”
A similar explanation is given for de Rugy having taken the train to Nantes and then meeting his driver there. “For the security reasons mentioned before, François de Rugy's journeys by car, like those of all members of the government whether private or official, in Paris or in any other part of the national territory, take place with a ministerial car and driver or one from a prefecture,” said his office. “The threats against François de Rugy are even greater in Nantes, where the halting of the plan for the airport at Notre-Dames-des-Landes and the closure of the coal-fired power station at Cordemais [editor's note, both in the same département as Nantes] have led to him receiving a large number of threats,” added his office, who noted that the minister's home in Nantes was burgled at the end of 2018.
Almost exactly year ago François de Rugy was criticised after Le Parisien reported how, as the president of the National Assembly at the time, he had asked for a third driver to be on call, compared with the two that his predecessors used.
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- The French version of this article can be found here.
English version by Michael Streeter