100 absentee MPs hit with fines

THE NATIONAL Assembly has fined 100 French MPs for failing to attend enough meetings, new figures have claimed.

MPs are fined €355 for each time they do not turn up to committee meetings without justification - but the full list of sanctions is not made public by the Assembly.

However, campaign group Regards Citoyens has published its annual league table based on a trawl through the Journal Officiel.

Hauts-de-Seine MP Patrick Balkany comes top of the list. Regards Citoyens says he did not attend any of the 33 meetings for committees on which he sits and was fined €4,615.

He has disputed the findings and says he was excused for four absences in May because of a spine operation.

Nord MP Michel Delebarre came next, with 30 absences and a €4,260 fine, and third place went to Saône-et-Loire MP Arnaud Montebourg, one of the candidates in the Socialist party presidential race, missing 29 meetings at a cost of €3,905.

In total, 101 out of 577 MPs were sanctioned in the past year, bringing in a total of €95,142.

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