In the dampness of summer 2019, the affair had caused a stir. After the publication of a Mediapart survey on his lifestyle, and suspicion of the use of public money for personal gain when he occupied the post of President of the National Assembly, François de Rugy, then Minister of the Ecological Transition, had been forced to resign. Nearly eight months later, his wife, Séverine Servat de Rugy, publishes a book on this story. In The Crab March , she denounces a "blackmail" of which she and her husband would have been victims, on behalf of an old friend. In an interview with the JDD this weekend, she explains that she wanted to "tell [her] truth" but also "describe behaviors [of politics] driven by passion, betrayal, the desire for performance".
A story of lobster and revenge
On the affair of François de Rugy's expensive lifestyle, Séverine Servat de Rugy is categorical: she and her husband's minister have fallen into a trap set by an old friend. "I had invited her for Christmas at the Hôtel de Lassay [a building of the National Assembly, note] because she said she was in distress. At one point, she stuck behind me and made me pose in front of a bottle of wine and say to me, 'This is my mother's favorite wine.' It seemed strange, but hey. When I saw the photo published by Mediapart, I had no trouble remembering the scene or the date: this Christmas Eve is the only time in fourteen month we had lobster. "
Why would this friend have done this? Séverine Servat de Rugy assures that François de Rugy refused to intervene in a history of tax recovery. "I think I remember that there was talk of 1 million euros," she told JDD . "In my opinion, many politicians (and their spouses) are victims of blackmail. A file consisting of fake news was delivered all tied to our accusers. It was a cabal, no more no less." She who is a journalist for the magazine Gala also evokes "pharmacies" who could have intervened to bring down her husband. "I have no evidence, but how do you explain such an avalanche of false accusations?"
Tackle to Benjamin Griveaux
Séverine Servat de Rugy scratches at the Mediapart passage, but especially the former colleagues of François de Rugy. In particular Benjamin Griveaux, spokesman for the government at the time, and whom she found very little supportive. Since then, the latter has had to withdraw from the race for municipal elections in Paris after the leak of intimate sex videos. "Like many, I first thought he had been reckless," says Séverine Servat de Rugy. "But should morality be the determinant of effectiveness in solving the problems of unemployment, discrimination and everything else? Benjamin Griveaux probably did not think of me when François resigned. But me, the day of after he left, I thought of him and his wife. "
Asked about possible regrets after the resignation of François de Rugy, Séverine Servat de Rugy prefers to see in it a "sacrifice not to hinder the government". "It's honorable, right?" Her book, she says she wrote and published with her husband's consent. "He let me do it and it is to his credit because it is rare for a politician to leave such freedom to his wife."