Mathieu Michel, Secretary of State for the Régie des batiments, was the guest of Fabrice Grosfilley in the morning show of Bel RTL.
Mathieu Michel has been talked about lately by talking about his salary on the set of Sunday is not everyday (watch the show again and go to 1h and 21 minutes). A very high salary, like all important government positions. “A minister earns between 14 and 15,000 euros, something like that (…) It’s the net“, he had declared. He returned to this subject, delicate in times of economic and energy crisis, in the morning of Bel RTL this Friday morning. He rather evokes a salary of 11,000 euros net per month, explaining the difference with the Sunday amount by non-wage benefits.
Fabrice Grosfilley: Can you say precisely the amount of your salary, or not?
Matthew Michael: “I said (the exact amount of) my salary a few days ago to Christophe Debrosu, you will find it in the legal texts.
You said ‘between 14,000 and 15,000 euros net’…
“It’s the package, in fact. What is important is to be transparent, because it is public money”.
Theoretically, it’s a little over 11,000 euros net, the salary of a secretary of state. What did you add?
“It’s more or less that, but we have a vehicle and others, but like all the other members of the government“, he explains. The Prime Minister’s salary is even a little higher, around 21,000 euros gross (compared to around 20,000 for Mathieu Michel), to which are also added benefits.
I don’t live in a parallel reality
However, the Secretary of State wanted to make it clear that he was not living “disconnected from reality“, despite this large salary. “When you get involved in politics, there is a salary that comes with it, it’s true. But it is important to say that we do not live disconnected from reality“.
When asked how the Secretary of State could certify to the population that he was aware that he earned 4 to 5 times more than them, the member of the MR explains. “I have been involved in local politics for over 20 years. It’s been 20 years that I spend my life in dinners, in sports clubs… I don’t live in a parallel reality, I am anchored in true reality“.