The departure of Pierre Gauttieri, considered in Saint-Etienne as the gray eminence of the mayor since the 2014 elections, had been requested during a meeting of vice-presidents of the metropolis last week.
Le Monde with AFP
Mayor Les Républicains de Saint-Etienne and president of the Stéphanoise metropolis, Gaël Perdriau, announced, Tuesday, September 20, his decision to “put an end to functions” of Pierre Gauttieri, his director of cabinet involved as him in A case of political blackmail at the Sextape.
The director of cabinet at the town hall and the metropolis, Pierre Gauttieri “understood the challenges of this decision and accepted it,” said the mayor in a statement. Both were placed in police custody last week in an intimate video blackmail that would have been exercised against the former centrist assistant prime, Gilles Artigues to neutralize it politically.
The case was launched at the end of August by a former close to the municipality which made very detailed confessions at the Mediapart site on this “smears” sponsored according to him by the mayor and his entourage.
The judicial investigation opened in Lyon after complaint by Gilles Artigues concerns the filming and the use of a video shot in January 2015 in which we see this ex-deputy known for his Catholic commitment and his homophobic positions, massage by a man in a hotel room in Paris.
m. Gauttieri who presents the mayor as “a friend”
“Pierre Gauttieri, like me and like each of our fellow citizens, benefits from this essential guarantee of democracy that is the presumption of innocence,” said the mayor’s press release which has so far denied any involvement in the blackmail. Mr. Gauttieri who presents the mayor as “a friend” had worked for Alain Madelin (DL) before joining Saint-Etienne.
He is renowned for his angry temperament, a defect that he publicly put forward during a recent interview with the Local television TL7 For Justify audio recordings very embarrassing for him. He had then excluded to resign, saying he was “upset with shame” by the threatening remarks he made during two meetings with the mayor and the former deputy prime, in 2017 and 2018.
The departure of this 54-year-old man considered in Saint-Etienne as the gray eminence of Gaël Perdriau since his election in 2014, had been requested at a meeting of vice-presidents of the metropolis last week.
Some also ask for “the leave” of the mayor of his elective functions during the investigation but he said that he intended to stay in place and worked “with determination”.