Every day has its share of revelations about the town hall of Saint-Étienne (Loire).
This time it is suspicions of favoritism, which affect Gaël Perdriau, mayor of the city, already implicated in a scandal of blackmail with the sextape affecting his first deputy.
According to Franceinfo, Gaël Perdriau would have favored the company of organization of cultural events "C'Kel Prod", directed by a couple of friends.
Two contracts would be contentious, denounces the opposition: a concert by Serge Lama and a performance of the "Greatest cabaret in the world" between 2020 and 2021.
This last show, whose budget would have exceeded 40,000 euros, should have been the subject of a mandatory competition, explain our colleagues.
If the call for tenders has not been made, justifies the deliberation of the municipal council, it is under an article of the code of public procurement on exclusive and unique creations.
But “C'Kel Prod” did not create the “Greatest cabaret in the world” but Patrick Sébastien.
Read also“My arms are falling off me, it’s scandalous”: the sextape affair, the other cauldron of Saint-Étienne
Under the fire of accusations, Gaël Perdriau decided on Thursday to delegate his representative functions to the metropolis and to the town hall for the sake of "appeasement".
The 50-year-old elected official plans to chair the city council on Monday afternoon but will give way to his first vice-president for the metropolitan council scheduled for Thursday.
In a statement, the municipal opposition group Saint-Etienne tomorrow (left) demanded that he also step down from his duties as mayor.
Calls for the resignation of Gaël Perdriau
Calls to rally and to demonstrate "for the resignation of Gaël Perdriau" during the municipal council on Monday were also launched on social networks by several left-wing organizations, in particular Nupes and a collective of "Steph' who want to unravel”.
Earlier this week, the mayor had already announced the dismissal of his chief of staff, also under fire from critics because of his alleged role in the blackmail.
“Pierre Gauttieri, like me and like each of our fellow citizens, benefits from this essential guarantee of democracy which is the presumption of innocence”, he had then underlined.
The affair broke out at the end of August when the Mediapart site published the detailed confessions of the former companion of Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, the education assistant of the mayor LR Gaël Perdriau, on a compromising video, shot according to him at the request of the mayor and his entourage to neutralize the former centrist first deputy, Gilles Artigues.
According to him, this "daubing of manners" was rewarded via fictitious services invoiced to two cultural associations subsidized by the town hall.
Read alsoSextape blackmail in Saint-Etienne: "I gave my price, 50,000 euros", says the organizer of the ambush
The Lyon public prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation for "invasion of privacy, aggravated blackmail, embezzlement of public property by a person in charge of a public function, breach of trust and concealment of these offenses" after a complaint by Gilles Artigues.
Gaël Perdriau was placed in police custody on September 13, along with his informer, his education assistant and his chief of staff.
He has always assured that he did not sponsor the sex tape where we see the former first deputy being massaged by a man in a hotel room in Paris, in January 2015, and he denies having used these images to put pressure on this centrist known for his Catholic commitment.
Mediapart, however, published damning audio recordings in mid-September.
We hear Gaël Perdriau talking about the video with his ex-first deputy, referring to a broadcast "in a small circle, with parsimony" in a conversation dating from July 2018, according to Mediapart.
"Once it's on the networks, it's no longer blackmail, it's execution," he says in another recording from November 2017 according to Mediapart.
