BFF-39 French PM defends 350,000-euro private flight

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FRANCE-POLITICS-PHILIPPE

French PM defends 350,000-euro private flight

PARIS, Dec 20, 2017 (BSS/AFP) – French Prime Minister Edouard Philippe
defended on Wednesday his decision to charter a private aircraft at a cost of
350,000 euros ($415,000) to bring him and a delegation back from Tokyo
earlier this month.

AFP disclosed late Tuesday that Philippe’s office had hired an Airbus A340
with first-class seats to fly from Japan to Paris on December 6 instead of
using an A340 army transport plane flying the same route at roughly the same
time.

The prime minister’s office has argued that Philippe needed to be back in
Paris urgently because President Emmanuel Macron was leaving the country and
that the air force plane was too uncomfortable for a night flight.

“It’s complicated to move the prime minister around and it’s expensive,”
Philippe told RTL radio on Wednesday. “I understand both the surprise and the
questions that French people are asking themselves.”

Asked if it had been a mistake, he replied: “I take responsibility for
this decision completely, I take responsibility to such an extent that I want
to explain it.”

Philippe was returning from the far-flung French Pacific territory of New
Caledonia on December 5 along with a 60-strong delegation of officials and
ministers.

For the first leg of the journey from Noumea to Tokyo, they used the air
force plane.

But instead of continuing on board this aircraft to Paris, his office
hired the private A340 to complete their journey and arrived home two hours
before the army plane which landed in Paris almost empty.

“We knew that there wasn’t a commercial flight at that time and that we
needed to get back. We knew we needed to get back for something vital which
is that the president was leaving on the Wednesday morning of our return,”
Philippe added.

He explained that the requirements of his job meant that moving around was
expensive but that he did everything possible to keep a lid on costs.

“If you had invited Edouard Philippe, I would have come in the metro which
would have cost me 1.90 or 2 euros. But… I arrived with four vehicles,
motorbikes, 15 people, and a doctor and a transmitter, who stay with me
because these are the resources given to a prime minister to enable him to
work at all times,” he added.

BSS/AFP/MR/ 1440hrs