The elected official has been in turmoil since “Mediapart” revealed the existence of recordings in which he plans to exploit a compromising video to put pressure on his former first assistant.
by and (with AFP)
The days of Gaël Perdriau within the Republicans (LR) are counted. Admittedly, the mayor of Saint-Etienne had distanced himself from the right-wing party. But LR announced, Tuesday, September 13, that it would be the subject of an exclusion procedure. This decision follows the Revelations of Mediapart , the day before, according to which the elected official would have put pressure on his former first assistant, Gilles Artigues, a centrist known as Catholic Conservative, threatening to reveal a video showing him with an escort.
“If it is now up to justice (…) to decide on the guilt and the degree of involvement of Mr. Perdriau, the Republicans can only condemn the vile methods used by the mayor of Saint-Etienne to The one of a political rival, “writes LR in a press release.
The president of the movement, Annie Genevard, has already launched the exclusion procedure. “The revelations of yesterday, with the recordings, confirm the involvement of Perdriau and his entourage. We are respectful of the rule of law,” she confides in the world. And to specify that it has declared itself favorably to the request for exclusion made by the LR of the Loire federation, “which will be ratified by the next political bureau”. According to our information, Mr. Perdriau was no longer up to date with his elected official: he was therefore only a simple party member, which should facilitate his exclusion.
“Violence, the Brutality “
“We had already deprived of all responsibility within the movement, because of his political positions and his declarations in favor of Emmanuel Macron”, recalls M Me genevard. Regarding the accusations he is the subject of, “it is an incredible story: the violence, the brutality of the comments of the cabinet, and also that of Perdriau, reveal political customs which are serious, and which dishonor the mandate and The responsibilities that Gaël Perdriau occupies “, argues M me genevard.
According to Mediapart, during exchanges with his ex-deputy premier, recorded by the latter, the mayor of Saint-Etienne talks to his former political ally the fact that he could make the video of a sexual nature “with Traveling “, in” small circles “, which would have the consequence of breaking his reputation.
For his part, the director of cabinet of the mayor, Pierre Gautierri, threatens Gilles Artigues several times in these recordings. He said that he does not refrain from exploiting this video, including with parents of students from establishments where the children of the victim are educated. During another exchange, while the first deputy denounces the political blackmail of which he considers himself a victim, liable, he repeats, of two years in prison, Mr. Gauttieri replied: “If the fact that I Being in jail makes you fall because you pass for an old pedal on the return, I have no problem. “
judicial information open
Tuesday, the first deputy of Gaël Perdriau, Jean-Pierre Bergé, said by press that the mayor of Saint-Etienne is “currently auditioned at his request in Lyon” with the members of his cabinet, “for May the truth are bursting, “faced with the accusations of blackmail that aim for it. The mayor told him “with serenity” of these hearings, he said.
The Lyon prosecutor’s office opened at the beginning of September a judicial information on this case concerning the filming and the use of a video recorded in 2014 while Gilles Artigues was massaged by a man in a hotel room in Paris. This survey for “damage to privacy intimacy, aggravated blackmail, subtraction of public good by a person responsible for a public service, breach of trust and concealment of these offenses” was launched as a result of a complaint of Mr. Artigues, targeting by name the mayor, one of his assistants and the lover of this deputy, who would have organized the meeting between Mr. Artigues and the escort.