© AMAURY CORNUHans LucasHans Lucas via AFP
– Monday December 16, 2024, the new Prime Minister went to Pau, in the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, by private jet.
We wonder how the idea came to his head. Even though a crisis meeting on Mayotte, ravaged by Cyclone Chido, was being held at 6 p.m. Monday under the presidency of Emmanuel Macron, François Bayrou chose to participate by videoconference, preferring to fly to Pau to chair the municipal council of the city of which he is mayor, at the end of the day.
From there to thinking that the fate of Pau would count more in his eyes than that of Mayotte, affected by a catastrophe whose human toll has reached an unprecedented level in France, there is only one step – they don’t say that politics is a matter of symbols? A “political mistake», according to the local opposition in Pau, which did not fail to arouse the national ire of many elected officials, on the left but not only. Macronist Yaël Braun-Pivet, president of the National Assembly, expressed this Tuesday morning that she would have “preferred that the Prime Minister take the plane to Mayotte». «Faced with such a catastrophe […]we must be 100% mobilized on crisis management“, she said on franceinfo.
12,000 euros for 52 minutes of flight
For this Pau interlude, the newly appointed Prime Minister chose to travel aboard a Dassault Falcon 7X, a high-end plane from the government fleet. 52 minutes of flight and 800 kg of fuel to connect Vélizy-Villacoublay to the Pyrénées-Atlantiques, for an estimated cost of 12,000 euros. In a tweet, LFI deputy Sébastien Delogu did not fail to recall that aid of 25,000 euros was voted for Mayotte, during this municipal council… A sum which seems small compared to the cost of the Prime’s jet trip minister.
Faced with the controversy, François Bayrou defended himself by specifying that security and agenda constraints made this choice unavoidable. “I never abuse state resourceshe replied on BFMTV. Ministers, Prime Ministers and Presidents of the Republic are accompanied by security services […]it’s obviously easier than finding airliners.»
The newspaper The Dispatchwho wanted to verify the veracity of his remarks, nevertheless showed that an Air France commercial flight left Paris-Roissy at 5:10 p.m. and arrived in Pau at 6:40 p.m., or 20 minutes before the start of the municipal council. In addition, a TGV journey, although longer (4h30), was also possible.
Ministers’ expense reports: 43,000 euros per private jet, and armored cars
The thorny question of multiple mandates
For the rest, François Bayrou, who chose to retain his mandate as mayor of Pau despite his appointment to Matignon, fully assumes responsibility for his trip. He pleads for the accumulation of mandates and underlines his attachment to “basis of French society», believing that the break with voters explains the distrust towards politicians.
As a reminder, in addition to his role as Prime Minister, François Bayrou holds the following functions: Mayor of Pau, High Commissioner for Planning, President of the MoDem and the European Democratic Party, and President of the Pau Béarn-Pyrénées urban community. . A choice that breaks with a recent tradition: his predecessors, like Jean Castex in 2020 or Edouard Philippe in 2017, had given up their local mandates to devote themselves to their national functions.
