Combining (very) comfortable remuneration of high officials and allowances of local elected representatives is possible. Curiously, while the moralization of public life - this great cleaning up after the Fillon affair of the “Pénélopegate” in the last presidential election - forbids this double hat to any civil servant who is elected parliamentary (deputy, senator or MEP), she forgets the case of mayors, members of departmental or regional executives. "A disproportionate advantage, even undemocratic" according to Vincent Jauvert, author of a vitriolic book on elites and money: "Les Voraces, elites et argent sous Macron" (éd Robert Laffont, par Vincent Jauvert, 201 pages, € 19), show that in terms of privileges and cronyism, the new world looks furiously like the old.
Inordinate? Let us judge with the case of Pierre Fond: this enarque, finance inspector, member of the elite of the “big moneymen” of Bercy, exercises the sensitive function of “principal accountant” of the CNES, the public establishment which builds the Ariane rocket. For a gross salary, reveals the book, of 215,000 euros per year. Despite this job that we imagine taking, the senior official leads a full political career: mayor (LR) of Sartrouville, a city of Yvelines with 52,000 inhabitants, president of the urban community and vice-president of the Departmental Council! The related allowances amounting to 8434 euros net monthly, the elected official would receive in total, according to the author, some 33,000 euros gross per month. Public money. This undoubtedly corresponds to a considerable amount of work. But when Jauvert asked Pierre Fond how he organized himself to reconcile all his activities, he did not get an answer.
"I always favor professional constraints"
Enarque also, Jean-François Debat is a member of the prestigious Council of State, paid 119,000 euros net per year. Former PS treasurer, he is also mayor of Bourg-en-Bresse (40,000 inhabitants), president of the urban community and vice-president of the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region. All for around 80,000 euros in annual net compensation. Or, calculates the author of "Voraces", some 200,000 euros of public funds. In Paris "half the week", he says, he participates "in all the meetings of the Council". And the elected official specifies: "In my diary, I always privilege the professional constraints, which come first". The author is surprised that it is not his constituents, Debat replies, crumpled, that he "was re-elected twice in the first round".
Spicy detail, the socialist is the leader of the opposition to the President of the Region, the Republican Laurent Wauquiez ... also a member of the Council of State. Except that the latter had resigned himself, faced with the controversy, to be placed on availability. Consequences, his career… and his retirement within this great body are frozen. Also pinned, among others, the former minister of Chirac, Hervé Gaymard, high-flying executive in Bercy and at the same time president of the department of Savoie or the "macron-compatible" mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, who completes his compensation of 6,000 euros monthly for a well-paid job in an agency under the authority of the Ministry of the Economy.
The most surprising thing is that in these times of yellow vests, these accumulations continue. An UDI deputy, supported by a PS colleague, tried to end it for "fairness" reasons, by an amendment last spring. Alas, the government opposed it ... "applauded by the right, the left and the center," concludes Vincent Jauvert. Ravenous are not yet full.
