Paris (AFP)

LREM deputy François de Rugy, candidate for the presidency of the group in the National Assembly, explained on Tuesday that he wanted to "bring together" the majority for the rest of the five-year term and ruled that "water has flowed under the bridges" since his resignation from the government after revelations about his lifestyle.

"The various candidates must say how they want the LREM group to be effective" in "the 18 useful months" that remain, "to act, make good laws, good budgets", and that "the LREM deputies be the voice of the French "facing" economic and social suffering, "he said on Europe 1.

While the flow of LREM departures has not dried up this year, amid disagreements on the line, he ruled that these divisions should "not continue".

In addition to Mr. Rugy, the MP for Yvelines Aurore Bergé and the former Minister of the Interior Christophe Castaner are candidates to succeed Gilles Le Gendre, criticized internally and who will leave office at the start of the school year.

The ballot is scheduled for September 9 and 10 and the result will be unveiled at the opening of the LREM parliamentary days in Amiens on September 10 and 11.

Doesn't François de Rugy fear that the affair of his lifestyle will taint his presidency if he takes the head of the group? "Those that I know (...) tell me" that the extent of the affair was "completely out of step with reality, it was too much", he replies.

"Over time, water has flowed under the bridges as they say, and the time has come to come together to be more efficient in our task", he insisted.

"There has never been a judicial follow-up," he added. "I recognized mistakes, I paid elsewhere, and especially at the time I withdrew, I resigned from the government", to "put the collective interest" of the government and the majority first. "on individual interest".

Then Minister for the Ecological and Inclusive Transition, François de Rugy resigned on July 17, 2019 after a series of revelations from Mediapart: sumptuous dinners organized while he chaired the Assembly (photos of lobsters and grands crus in support), disputed use of his deputy mandate fees, costly work in his official accommodation, social housing rented in Nantes.

Prime Minister Edouard Philippe subsequently decided that the works of more than 20,000 euros in the staff quarters of ministers should now be "subject to the approval of the general secretariat of the government".

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