Twelve bottles of champagne and tickets for Beyoncé: French politicians are swimming in gifts from companies | Abroad

Member of Parliament Eric Woerth is also being pampered. Almost every year he receives 12 bottles of champagne worth 600 euros. A kindness from a businessman friend, but a businessman who received a tax exemption years ago when Woerth was still Minister of Public Finance.

The French daily Le Monde conducted research into the gifts and donations that politicians receive in France. The rules for this are limited. French MPs are in principle allowed to accept anything, from home and abroad, from individuals, companies or governments.

Since 2011, they have been obliged to report donations more than 150 euros. But not all, according to the statutes of the National Assembly, the French House of Representatives. “It only concerns the gifts that may cause a conflict of interest.” Whether that is the case, the MP can judge for himself.

Moreover, no time limit is stated: a concert ticket for Beyoncé or a bottle of Roederer Brut may be reported with a delay of years. Or only when someone asks for it.

Le Monde delved into the register containing all reports and sifted through the data from the last four years. And there appears to be a lot of ‘donation’ going on. From 2020 to now, 51,000 euros worth of donations have been included in the register. And those are only the expensive gifts that MPs voluntarily decide to report.

“There is official transparency, but little thought has been given to what is ethical or not to accept as a gift,” the newspaper notes.

A radical right-wing politician had an extensive lunch with a cigarette manufacturer and a left-wing MP was invited by Qatar for a trip to the Middle East.

“MPs of President Macron’s party are by far the largest recipients of gifts,” the newspaper writes. They received gifts worth almost 34,000 euros.

Center politician Elodie Jacquier-Laforge, who is in Macron’s coalition, was treated to a dinner from a liqueur brand and then heavily promoted the drink on her own site. Macron’s party colleague Damien Abad received three tickets from companies for Paris Saint-Germain matches. He did not sit at the back of the stadium: the tickets cost more than 2,000 euros each.

The newspaper also discovered that politicians regularly make paid trips without reporting them, which is mandatory. Macron MPs traveled to Ivory Coast at the expense of Max Havelaar (known for Fairtrade coffee) and to Benin at the expense of Unicef, but failed to report this.

And if the trips are reported, this is on average 33 days after the trip, while the intention is that the trips are announced in advance.

It is also striking that a group of members of the French Senate and the Assembly have their own rugby team, the ‘XV Parliamentary’, which traveled to Ireland for a match a year ago, writes Le Monde. “To finance this, the club has made agreements with companies such as Airbus and Engie that donate money and make donations in kind. Some employees of the companies are also present when the politician-rugby players play a match.”