POLITICS – The National Rally has a (small) problem with public money. Before the trial of the parliamentary assistants, and their supposed fictitious work at the European Parliament, which will open at the end of September, we learned on Tuesday, September 10 that MP Christine Engrand embezzled several tens of thousands of euros for her personal use. The National Rally representative from Pas-de-Calais is said to have paid for the boarding of her two dogs using her Assembly checkbook, our colleagues from Mediapart.
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Forced to spend several days a week in Paris as part of her mandate, Christine Engrand had no one to entrust Smoothie and Chouchou to. She therefore had to pay for a babysitter. The bill amounted to 27 euros per day. If I had abandoned my dogs, you would have called me and said: you killed your dogs.”she replied without blinking to the journalists of the news site.
Moreover, since she was caught out for the misuse of her parliamentary envelope, the MP has made other arrangements, as she explains in Mediapart : “Before, I had my two dogs looked after from Tuesday to Friday. Now, I only stay two days at the Assembly because I have no other means of looking after my dogs. It’s not that before I did more, but I try to juggle my dogs.”
Except that the elected official’s curious expenses do not stop there: the far-right elected official also registered on a dating site (for €39.99 per month) and paid for her mother’s funeral expenses (€5,971). All this using the €5,950 per month made available by the National Assembly to each elected official.
« I find the envelope very, very short. »
Near Mediapartthe 69-year-old MP nevertheless assures that she received oral confirmation that animal care was included in the scope of mandate expenses. It was the former ethics officer who told my assistant that. I should have had an email, it would have been easier, but it was by phone.”she justifies.
Even more juicy, Christine Engrand confided to the online media: “ You know, I earn less than before (being elected, editor’s note), I have lost purchasing power.” The calculations are not correct: in addition to her parliamentary allowance of €7,637 gross, she receives several hundred euros for her seat as regional councillor. « 5 000 euros [de frais de mandat]I can’t do it. The envelope that we are given, I find that it is very, very short, it is not profitable at all”dares to affirm the one who, in her interventions in the Economic Affairs Committee, distinguished herself by taking a position against the autonomy allowance proposed for young people.
According to the Observatory of Inequalities, with a monthly income of over €7,180, Christine Engrand is in fact part of the richest 1% of French people. In her defense, she first pleads “the mistake”then explains that she got tangled up between her personal and professional bank cards. However, it appears that many payments were made… by check.
This story, as surprising as it may be, is not new, no matter where you look in the chamber. As recently as September 4, a former PS MP, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, was sentenced to eight months in prison, suspended, and to a sentence of ineligibility for having used his MP’s budget for personal purposes (travel, rent, bills, etc.).
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