The organizers of the Rassemblement National's (RN, far-right) parliamentary seminar, held in Paris, September 14–15, added a brief session to the weekend's schedule: a moment to explain the rules concerning the use of the allowance given to French MPs to cover expenses tied to their office. With good reason, given recent revelations by the investigative website Mediapart about RN lawmaker Christine Engrand's spending, and the answers she gave when asked about it.
According to the investigative media outlet, the 69-year-old, who has been a member of parliament since June 2022, has spent over €10,000 of public money on personal expenses over her two years in office. These expenses included dog-sitting for her two dogs, a monthly subscription to a dating site, and funeral expenses. She said she reimbursed the Assemblée Nationale after a former member of her staff had reported them to the chamber's administrative services.
Her ex-assistant had also reported the matter to RN representatives, wrote Mediapart, though this did not lead to any admonishment, according to Engrand. The MP was re-nominated and comfortably re-elected in the last parliamentary elections, winning in the first round on June 30.
"I didn't receive any training [on parliamentary expenses] in 2022. I admit that I should have read the book better," she told Mediapart. That is what the party will be advising its MPs to do: reading the Assemblée's code of ethics, where the prohibition on using this allowance for personal expenses is spelled out very clearly.
In Engrand's view, the allowance – €5,950 per month – is inadequate: "The envelope we're given, I find, is very very short. It's not profitable at all," she said.
Regarding the dog-sitting, Engrand admitted that she has occasionally asked her parliamentary assistants to take them to their boarding kennels, but said she has found a solution to this problem: She will now only come to the Assemblée Nationale two days a week, in order to strike a balance between the code of ethics, taking care of her labrador and her poodle, and her personal finances. A former sales manager, Engrand lamented having "lost disposable income" after her election and not being able to make ends meet.
She did not respond to Le Monde's requests for comment. Her office issued a statement explaining she "does not contest these blunders at the start of her term of office" and that "all of the reported expenses were reimbursed several months ago." This was a more focused response than her initial statement, which had been described as "absurd" by a fellow RN MP. A source within Marine Le Pen's entourage preferred a simple: "No comment."