A state dinner with the U.K.’s king cost the French nearly €500,000.

A decadent dinner costing nearly €475,000 for the U.K.’s King Charles III helped push France’s Élysée Palace — the office of President Emmanuel Macron —to a record high deficit last year.

France’s love for grand gestures and opulent dining are fully in evidence in the pages of a damning  yearly audit of the Élysée’s budget, released on Monday by the Cour des Comptes, France’s top audit court.

The Élysée’s spending, which includes costs related to the president’s diplomatic and presidential duties as well as administration, personnel, security and estate management, reached a whopping €125 million, plunging the books €8.3 million into the red.

Among the biggest deficit drivers were two luxurious state dinners, with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi and King Charles III.

  • trolololol@lemmy.worldEnglish
    11·
    4 months ago

    And that’s to please a king, so it’s not like a political favor. Macron is getting nothing out of this.

    • targetx@programming.devEnglish
      2·
      4 months ago

      I don’t think it works that way… on paper it sure looks the way you said but I’m 99% sure there’s all sorts of gentlemen agreements and other back channel stuff going on there.