The scandal will have been fatal to him. The former President of the National Assembly and Minister for Ecological Transition, François de Rugy, is leaving politics at the age of 48, even if he remains a supporter of Emmanuel Macron, he announced on Friday in an interview with the magazine Fundamental.
“It is healthy in a democracy that the functions are limited in time”, justifies the LREM deputy for Loire-Atlantique, who will not stand for re-election next June, after a combination of twenty years of various successive terms. He now intends to “act in economic life” or even “invest in civic life through an association or a think tank”.
Supposedly sumptuous lifestyle, photos of lobsters and champagne…
“I still love politics and I am not disgusted by it even if I have paid dearly and unfairly for my commitment and the exercise of responsibilities”, assures the Nantes resident in reference to his resignation in July 2019 from his post as minister. of the Ecological Transition after revelations from Mediapart concerning his supposedly lavish lifestyle, photos of lobsters and champagne in support.
If this case does not fully explain his choice, he believes that what he has “suffered raises questions about the evolution of democracy”. “By dint of attacking elected officials, attacking them as soon as they are designated by the vote, we lose sight of their essential usefulness and the meaning of representative democracy. We demolish, we dirty, we disqualify rather than counter argue, ”he regrets. “This climate favors, in power, communication rather than action, demagoguery rather than substantive treatment,” he adds.
Support for Emmanuel Macron, a spade for the Greens
Considering himself “cleared” by the investigations of the government and the Assembly concerning the amount of work in his official accommodation at the ministry, and the sumptuous dinners when he presided over the National Assembly, François de Rugy had however committed to reimburse three of these dinners judged to be of a “manifestly excessive level” by the investigation.
The former minister says he “always agrees with the orientation” of Emmanuel Macron’s action, and slips that he retains from his experience in government the fact that “we must above all not be satisfied with symbols because “the politics of symbols is the death of ecology” and “over the long term, disappointment is guaranteed”.
Ex-EELV, he criticizes in passing the Greens who “do not believe” according to him in the possibility of “inserting ecology into progressivism and trusting science” and are “on the defensive as soon as we speak technological innovations to solve ecological challenges”.
Entering politics 20 years ago as deputy mayor of Nantes as part of an alliance between ecologists and socialists, François de Rugy had been deputy for Loire-Atlantique since 2007. Last year, he was the head of the LREM list in the regional elections in Pays-de-la-Loire. He then failed in fourth place in the second round with 8.20% of the vote. He has since sat on the regional council, in the opposition. A mandate that he should therefore abandon, if he indeed renounces politics.
Source: 20minutes
