The President of the Departmental Council of Gers, Philippe Martin, resigned, Thursday, January 6th. He was sentenced on Tuesday to two years in prison for remunerating his ex-wife for a fictitious employment of parliamentary assistant between 2002 and 2013.
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The suspense will have been short-lived. Two days after his conviction by the Paris National Public Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for “misappropriation of public funds”, the President of the Departmental Council of Gers, Philippe Martin (Socialist Party, PS), former Minister of Ecology, Sustainable Development and energy (2013-2014) under the five-year fifth of François Hollande, announced his resignation, Thursday, January 6th.
A political earthquake in the Gers, because Philippe Martin has been at the head of the County Council since 1998: “At the time of leaving the presidency of our territorial collectivity, my state of mind is a mixture of sadness, pride and Trust, “he said in a press conference. It was for his former mandate as a deputy of the Gers that Philippe Martin was pursued to have, between 2002 and 2013, paid his ex-wife, Joëlle Martin, for a fictitious job of parliamentary assistant. Convened by the PNF, Tuesday, January 4, as part of a prior conviction of guilt (CRPC), having recognized the facts as well as his ex-wife, he was sentenced to two years of suspended prison and three years of ineligibility for “diversion of public funds”.
This conviction has led to the sidation in the department and the critical criticism of the Republic (LRM) – without elected to the departmental council – speaking of “Fillon Gersoise”, and the right opposition to the Council department asking him to resign. He himself had recently declared: “If one day, there is a questioning that I will take my responsibilities, I will take them. If it’s inevitable, I will not last things. I do not approve. The attitude of elected officials that multiply the procedures to last. “
a succession without dolphin
His resignation, is already the question of the succession at the head of the departmental council of the man who, for twenty-three years, “politically embodied the department, heavy weight without equivalent of the Socialist Gersois party who remains in the bigger embarrassment today. Certainly, Philippe Martin had stated that it was his last term, but the elected canton of Valencia-sur-Baise had not allowed anything publicly to filter on a possible succession. For the moment, as provided by the Electoral Code, it is the first Vice-President, Céline Rooms, who will ensure the interim of the presidency of the department. A woman at the head of the “Parliament of Gascony” is already a first for the department.
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