Coronavirus: A senator pinned for a lunch at the hotel – FRANCK FIFE / AFP
Senator Les Républicains Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam shared a “working lunch” at the Meurice hotel on Wednesday, she confirmed on Friday, pleading in her right, after being
pinned by Mediapart in the continuity of the controversy on the “clandestine dinners”.
The senator representing the French living abroad believes that she has “nothing to be ashamed of”, despite the context of the health crisis linked to Covid-19, confirming having lunch, for a “professional meeting”, with a client of the hotel, Christian Kälin, “Zurich lawyer passing through Paris”, according to Mediapart.
A meal “served in a private area by room service”
“In this specific case, it was therefore a working lunch, not in the dining room, but served in a private space by room service, which is perfectly authorized in accordance with the sanitary protocol”, indicates the senator. Asked by AFP, Franka Holtmann, general manager of the hotel Le Meurice, confirmed these statements.
“He was a guest of the hotel who is staying with us, and who obviously had a visit to his suite. We do not have any lunches or dinners other than those served by room service to customers who stay with us, ”she said.
“It’s totally legal”
“We do not serve in the salons, they are all closed”, assured Franka Holtmann. “If the Senator spoke of a living room, it must have been the living room of a suite. From what I know, there is no constraint on the service via room service ”.
“If I have a client in a suite who receives someone to work and orders something from room service, we are not going to ask him what he eats himself, or if there is someone there. ‘other: that is none of our business. It is their private life, it is completely legal, continued the director of the palace. We would be vigilant if someone suddenly ordered for five people, it would be something else. “
The senator further clarified that “lunch this Wednesday was the only time available on our respective agendas in the two days he spent in Paris”. “The Senate restaurant unfortunately no longer allows inviting people from outside. The only solution was a frugal working lunch in his hotel where Christian Kälin had reserved a suite for this purpose. And it was perfectly legal, ”she added.
The elected woman wonders about the fact that “data from her electronic diary seem to have been stolen to be transferred to Mediapart”. Joëlle Garriaud-Maylam was recently the subject of an opinion from the Senate ethics committee relating to a report of suspicion of harassment denounced by an employee. Meeting on March 25, the Senate Bureau considered that “if the facts did not constitute harassment (…), they revealed the need for the senator, in order to comply with her obligations as an employer, to commit to a minimum duration of one year in an individualized management support approach ”.