No one knows if RN deputy Grégoire de Fournas will celebrate Beaujolais Nouveau this Thursday evening, but the sips may be a little more bitter than usual.
The elected representative of the 5th constituency of Gironde has just had his suspenders lifted by the ethics officer of the National Assembly for having… promoted his wine on social networks.
Namely on Twitter.
Recall that the deputy is currently excluded from the hemicycle for “demonstration disturbing order or which causes a tumultuous scene”, after having made remarks deemed racist.
This is the most serious sanction to which an elected member of the nation is exposed under the rules of the Assembly.
Christophe Pallez, the Assembly's ethics officer, therefore noted an "ethical breach".
On November 16, Grégoire de Fournas used his official Twitter account, the one with which he reports on his parliamentary activity, to promote his wine.
“Many people have contacted me to order wine.
It is now possible by clicking on this link “, could we read.
The tweet has been deleted
This post raised a lot of questions.
A large number of Internet users had immediately accused the deputy of using his certified deputy account to carry out such an operation.
The others wondered if the MP was not trying to take advantage of the media coverage of the racist remarks case to sell a few extra cases of wine and make ends meet.
Faced with this outcry, Grégoire de Fournas finally decided to delete his controversial tweet and seize the Assembly's ethics officer.
According to several of our colleagues, the ethics officer recommended the deletion of the tweet, which has already been done, as well as the fact of no longer using his official MP accounts to engage in such activities.
With @lobs, Grégoire de Fournas says he seized the ethics officer of the Assembly to find out that he was violating his obligations by promoting his wine.
"When in doubt, I deleted the tweet. But I will repost it if I am confirmed that it is not prohibited".
pic.twitter.com/QBhXqoFVRO
— Lucas Burel (@L_heguiaphal) November 17, 2022
It remains to be seen whether this new reprimand could expose him to new sanctions.
“Deputies must act in the sole interest of the Nation and of the citizens they represent, to the exclusion of any satisfaction of a private interest or the obtaining of a financial or material benefit for themselves or their loved ones”, details article 1 of the regulations of the National Assembly.
Article 79 specifies: "It is prohibited for any deputy, subject to the disciplinary penalties provided for in Articles 71 to 73, to plead or allow the use of his capacity in financial, industrial or commercial undertakings or in the exercise of the professions. liberal or other and, in general, to use his title for reasons other than the exercise of his mandate".
In the event of breach of this last article, the regulations provide for the following sanctions: censure, which entails the deprivation of half of the parliamentary allowance for one month, or censure with temporary exclusion.
A range of sanctions that the member now knows perfectly.
