De Rugy considers himself the victim of a “media lynching” and claims to have filed a defamation suit against Mediapart who had pinned luxurious “private dinners”, and work done in his apartment at the taxpayers’ expense on him. But the lack of support for De Rugy ultimately came from members from his own LREM party.
“The attacks and the media lynching that my family is undergoing today lead me to take the necessary distance, which everyone will understand,” said François de Rugy.
The president of the France Insoumise party of the National Assembly, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, regretted that Interior Minister Castaner and Minister of Justice Nicole Belloubet were still in government.
“Steve is worth less than a lobster?”, he added, in reference to Steve Caniço, a young man who disappeared in Nantes during the Music Festival, during a controversial police operation which was carried out.
On the other side of the political spectrum, among the Republicans, MP Philippe Gosselin did not want to “howl with the wolves”, “nor defend unduly de Rugy who was more than awkward, inconsiderate”. He nevertheless denounced the media campaign against De Rugy.
As a frequent victim himself, Gilbert Collard, MP for the National Rally, did not seem tormented by concerns about media lynchings: “His majesty Lobster the first, has been cooked in the media broth!”, he tweeted.
Sa majesté #Homard 1er a cuit dans le court-bouillon médiatique !#DeRugy pic.twitter.com/SNvNZq1jXb
— Gilbert Collard (@GilbertCollard) July 16, 2019