After French politicians, French general in financial scandal

This video says about itself:

French general accused of using fighter jet for weekend commutes to Provence

29 June 2017

General Richard Reboul allegedly used an Alpha Jet for personal trips at least 10 times to cut a seven-hour journey to 30 minutes.

Translated from Dutch daily De Volkskrant:

Boss of French air force said to fly to his holiday home by jet fighter

French General Richard Reboul is accused of using the Alpha Jet, the airplane that flies over Paris every year at the military parade, for going to work and back home. This writes the satiric weekly Le Canard Enchaîné.

By Peter Giesen

June 29, 2017, 15:46

According to Le Canard Enchaîné, Reboul has used the Alpha Jet about ten times for private purposes. The magazine is not merely satirical, but does investigative journalism as well. In addition, he is said to have chartered a military transport plane with pilot and copilot for his own transport.

Le Canard claims that an Alpha Jet flight from Bordeaux to Salon-de-Provence costs about 2000 euros on kerosene, compared to 200 euros for a train ride or a ride by car. However, according to the website l’Internaute, fighter airplanes use special, much more expensive, kerosene, which would cost the general

rather: the taxpayers

14 to 16 thousand euros per flight. …

The Alpha Jet is a joint product of French Dassault and German Dornier. The device is widely used as a training aircraft. According to Le Nouvel Observateur, however, the number of training flights has been curtailed by lack of money, which would make General Reboul’s journeys even more painful.

Investigation

The newly appointed Minister of Defense, Florence Parly,

Appointed after her also newly appointed predecessor, together with three other newly appointed ministers in President Macron‘s newly appointed government, had to resign in corruption scandals.

Dear Volkskrant: Ms Parly, and her predecessor Ms Goulard were/are not Ministers of ‘Defense’. Macron had renamed that department from the euphemistic ‘Defense’ to ‘Armed Forces department’. Cynically, one might say it is an improvement that a ministry waging neocolonial wars all over the world no longer hypocritically claims these wars are ‘defense’. Though it would have been even less hypocritical to call it Ministry of Wars instead of ‘Armed Forces Ministry’.

has asked the army’s inspector-general to investigate possible abuse of defense equipment. The air force will have its own investigation. …

High officials in France are often controversial because they give themselves excessive privileges. … Mathieu Gallet, the director of Radio France, decorated his office for more than 105 thousand euros, eg by having rosewood paneling. The staff did not like that, because Radio France had to cut back at the same time.