Monthly clothing expenses of several thousand euros, very high restaurant costs… LREM MP Coralie Dubost was singled out for her humane management of certain employees and the expensive use of her mandate expense advances, reveals a Mediapart survey published on Friday April 29. The complainant partly disputed these allegations.
The Mediapart article is based in particular on the report of a human resources firm sent in the spring of 2021 to the ethics officer of the National Assembly.
In this document, consulted by AFP, former collaborators accuse the deputy of Hérault of having imposed on them “tasks within the personal sphere”, such as making personal purchases for her, supervising household staff, or performing certain domestic tasks. These former assistants also denounce comments and behavior “devaluing” from the parliamentarian, who denies.
The report also mentions the discomfort of certain collaborators about the use by Coralie Dubost of her advances for mandate expenses. Every month, MEPs receive a sum of 5,373 euros intended to meet “to the various expenses related to the exercise of [leur] mandate”, explains the site of the Assembly. Parliamentarians can spend this envelope as they see fit, but certain expenses are prohibited. Since January 1, 2018, MEPs have been obliged to keep their accounts and keep the supporting documents for the majority of their expenses in order to submit them to the random control of the ethics officer.
In a report published in 2020 (PDF document), the Ethics Officer of the National Assembly stated without quoting elected officials by name that with regard to clothing costs, all items of clothing, shoes and accessories (belt, neckerchief, scarf) likely to be used within the framework of the mandate, with the exception of underwear.
However, according to the online media, Coralie Dubost spent up to 3,300 euros on clothing and accessories in October 2018. “There are mandate outfits and personal outfits […] I do not put the same business in my personal life and in my life of mandate”, justified Coralie Dubost to Mediapart. The website also reports 500 euros spent on lingerie during the same year.
The elected official indicates that she has reimbursed the costs deemed unrelated to the exercise of the mandate of deputy, after a control by the ethics officer of the National Assembly for the years 2018 and 2019.