The elected official was arrested in mid-October by the police on a Paris metro platform in the middle of a transaction with a drug dealer.
The figure is enough to make one shudder. Insoumis MP Andy Kerbrat used 25,000 euros in mandate fees to finance his personal drug consumption in 2023 alone, according to a Mediapart investigation. The elected official from Loire-Atlantique was arrested in mid-October on a Paris metro platform in flagrante delicto purchasing 3-MMC, a totally illegal synthetic drug consumed in party circles. He then publicly admitted his guilt and legal proceedings were initiated against him. He once again recognizes the essential facts reported in the Mediapart investigation, confirming to our colleagues “to have done anything” with public money paid by the National Assembly.
The considerable sum from his AFM account (advance of mandate fees) includes more than 13,000 euros in withdrawals from ATMs, often in the middle of the night, says the newspaper, as well as bank transfers, notably via the Paypal and Lydia applications. . The person concerned, however, denies that the money withdrawn was used solely to finance drugs, traceability being impossible to carry out.
The account, into which the National Assembly pays 4,700 euros each month intended for mandate costs – in addition to the 7,600 euros net salary paid into a personal account – ended up showing an overdraft of 8,000 euros in August 2023, according to the figures from Mediapart. This shows the frantic pace of spending. The MP ended up entrusting the management of the account to one of his colleagues and reimbursing the amount of 25,000 euros to his AFM account, raised thanks to “a family helper”.
Withdrawal from his parliamentary functions
The elected Insoumis confides at length in this investigation about his extremely serious addiction problems. “Before I started using substances, I had a problem with alcohol. It was often because I had been drinking that I took substances”he explains. “We can talk about a phenomenon of decompensation: I was not well, I arrived in Paris, I had days where the mental load was significant, I finished at midnight, I took products to keep up”he continues.
Concerning the tangible consequences of his addictions to drugs and alcohol, in particular his repeated absences noticed in committee, they do not seem to have unduly alerted those around him. Only alerted to her overconsumption of alcohol, the president of the LFI group, Mathilde Panot, informed Andy Kerbrat on several occasions of “his availability for [l]'help”. He had made a commitment to her to take care of himself. “Everyone knows that there is a widespread problem of addictions within this Assembly which crosses all groups”observes the radical left MP.
Elected for the first time in 2022 in his constituency of Loire-Atlantique, the 34-year-old Insoumis activist was re-elected in the first round during the early legislative elections last summer. He asked to be hospitalized and has withdrawn from his parliamentary duties for the time being.
