By resigning at the request of Emmanuel Macron, Élisabeth Borne lost her chair at Matignon but not all her privileges. Even once they leave, former prime ministers retain a certain number of advantages. Like former ministers and secretaries of state, they can receive compensation for three months – compared to six months before the law on transparency in public life of 2013 – equivalent to the salary they received in government.
That is 14,910 euros gross per month for a prime minister, 9,940 euros for a minister and 9,443 euros for a secretary of state. These amounts were higher before former socialist president François Hollande issued a decree at the start of his five-year term in 2012 to reduce them by 30%. Note that payment of this compensation is assured to former government members for three months “unless they return to paid activity before,” specifies the official Vie-publique.fr website. Likewise, they are deprived of it if they fail to declare all or part of their assets or their interests to the High Authority for the Transparency of Public Life (HATVP).
Élisabeth Borne, like her predecessors Jean Castex or Édouard Philippe, will also be able to benefit, for life, from a company vehicle with driver – with the State covering the related costs -, as well as a private secretary, but only for ten years and until the age of 67 at the latest. Before a decree published in 2019, these means granted to former prime ministers were all without time limit.
Also read: How much do former French prime ministers cost taxpayers?
Please note, however, that former heads of government who already have a secretariat or a company car “for the exercise of a parliamentary mandate, a mandate as a local elected official or a public function,” specifies the decree. Former prime ministers can finally benefit from police protection at any time if they wish, provided by the protection service (SDLP) of the national police.
On the other hand, for former ministers and secretaries of state, they must give up, upon leaving the government, the material advantages they enjoyed when they still belonged to the executive. So no more company accommodation, free access to first class rail transport and the provision of a vehicle with driver.
Only former sovereign ministers (Interior, Foreign Affairs, Justice, Defense) can be granted police protection by Place Beauvau, on a case-by-case basis, for security reasons. Former Minister of Justice Christiane Taubira, for example, retained security officers several weeks after her departure from Place Vendôme in 2016.
