The administrative court on Wednesday rejected the request of the socialist opposition to the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes Region aimed at countering the organization by videoconference of the plenary session of the assembly, in the midst of a controversy over an expensive dinner organized by its president LR Laurent Wauquiez.
“
We were notified of the rejection on Wednesday evening, we are awaiting the reasons for this decision.
But we already regret that the court has rejected this request for a hearing, because what is at stake is the democratic debate, which we are trying to evade
, ”said Sylvain to AFP. Cormier, lawyer for the Socialist, Ecologist and Democrat (SED) group.
The latter had seized Wednesday in summary release the administrative court of Lyon, after the decision announced by the regional executive to hold by videoconference the debates scheduled for Thursday and Friday in the hemicycle, citing fuel shortages.
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But for the socialists, “
the executive is diverting the spirit of the 3DS law framing, in a post-Covid context, the possibility offered to local executives to have recourse to the dematerialization of deliberative sessions
”.
And to denounce the “
authoritarian excesses
” and the “
anti-democratic practices of President Wauquiez, more inclined to organize sumptuary dinners at the expense of the taxpayer than to bring local democracy to life in good conditions
”.
The "
summit dinner
" organized at the end of June at the invitation of Laurent Wauquiez in a castle for 90 personalities, at a cost of just over 100,000 euros - or in the end more than 1,100 euros per guest, meal and rental included - sparked a barrage of criticism after revelations from
Mediapart
last week.
Noting that "
no information has been made to the members of the regional council on these events
", the ecologists, the main opposition group, have demanded "
the reimbursement of these indecent sums in times of crisis
".
They alerted the Regional Chamber of Accounts and announced on Wednesday that they had made a report to the national financial prosecutor's office.
“
Laurent Wauquiez and his friends have lost the sense of reality
”, also lambasted on twitter Andréa Kotarac, president of the elected RN.