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King Charles’ €500K lobster dinner blows hole in French presidency’s budget (www.politico.eu)

submitted 3 months ago by MicroWave@lemmy.world to c/world@lemmy.world

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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.

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[-] p0windah@lemmy.world 34 points 3 months ago* (last edited 3 months ago)

This breaks down into a nightmare in my mind.

What are the components of a meal and the service attached to it that can be stretched to the maximum for someone who "has everything".

Honestly, expensive produce doesn't generate this sort of expense.

Must the catering staff all hold MBA's? Each fork is hundreds of years old and polished to a mirror finish?

The carpet and underlay, is freshly laid for the meal; and then immediately ripped up and destroyed afterwards.

I doubt Charles passed along the edict that he requires an outrageously ostentatious meal, but the French "just knew" that was the right thing to do.

I want to believe heads of state would be content eating the same meals that are served in the Olympic village.

This is the worst form of consumerism, you just point to your nose and people scramble to pamper you with praise, favour and treats.

What a truly wonderful way to outsource waste, without feeling any personal responsibility towards the consequences of your lifestyle.

[-] trolololol@lemmy.world 11 points 3 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.dev 2 points 3 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.

[-] ShepherdPie@midwest.social 1 points 3 months ago

Maybe they got a fleet of helicopters to transport each lobster from Maine directly to France so that it'd be as fresh as possible?

this post was submitted on 30 Jul 2024

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