The former minister François de Rugy declared Monday on BFMTV to have been victim of a "personal revenge" followed by a "media lynching", expressing no regret on the substance of the business which led him to resign from the Government on 16 July.
"We know very well who it is"
Asked about the sumptuous dinners at the Hôtel de Lassay that shocked public opinion, the former president of the assembly explained that he knew "the informant" who transmitted the controversial photos to the site Mediapart who revealed the case . "We know very well who it is, of course," he said, speaking of "personal revenge" about him. Against you or against your wife ?, he was asked. "Against the two," said the former minister, stating that it was a journalist, a "relationship" of his wife, herself a journalist, who had entrusted him with the photos of the private dinner of the Saint- Valentin.
"I am the victim of a cabal"
On this dinner, the former fourth state figure explained that he was "as usual between two sessions" and that he was "offered to do it in the living room downstairs rather than in the hall. usual eating and put some rose petals ". "It's still not that that ruined the National Assembly," said François de Rugy who recalled reducing under his mandate of 13% reception fees and 35% travel expenses. "But some rose petals, four candles on a candlestick, obviously, it's a shocking photo," he said, speaking of "stolen photos made to shock". "I am the victim of a cabal, an inadmissible media lynching," denounced François de Rugy.
The former minister said he was "freed from the weight of the infamy that was wanted to put on his back.He felt last week to have been" whitewashed "by the findings of investigations by the General Secretariat of the Government and the General Secretariat of the Assembly. "Today, the return to the reality of the facts has dropped the breath," he insisted Monday.
Referring to his resignation, the former minister explained that he considered that it was no longer possible to fully exercise (his) function as minister and at the same time to organize (his) defense. "" At some point, I made the meaning of the state, the general interest of the President of the Republic of the majority government, over my personal interest. I understand that it surprises, ministers clinging to their posts. I have another approach, an honest approach, "he said.