Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne invites
"everyone to take responsibility"
while letting
"justice work"
the day after the publication by Mediapart of new revelations against the mayor of Saint-Etienne (Loire), Gaël Perdriau.
And this while demands are being heard for the elected official to be revoked from his duties in the Council of Ministers.
An exceptional procedure, provided for facts of great gravity.
Asked Thursday on the sidelines of a trip to Gaillac (Tarn), Elisabeth Borne did not wish to respond favorably to this request.
“I am not relying on revelations (from the press).
There is justice which is seized, which does its job and we will let justice do its job.
And perhaps, everyone takes their responsibilities, too
,” said the Prime Minister, thus seeming to suggest that the mayor could not remain insensitive to the demands that are being heard.
The Socialist Party, through its spokesman in the National Assembly Arthur Delaporte, asked Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin
"to present to the Council of Ministers a decree dismissing Gaël Perdriau's functions"
.
“Very serious revelations follow one another concerning the mayor of Saint-Etienne.
They are damaging our democracy
,” he said on social media.
According to online media, Gaël Perdriau (ex-LR) launched a rumor accusing Laurent Wauquiez, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region, of child crime.
The mayor acknowledged, with the journalists who quoted him, that his remarks from a recording were unfounded.
Read alsoIn Saint-Étienne, the political destiny of Gaël Perdriau mired in the “sextape” scandal
Gaël Perdriau has been in turmoil since Mediapart revealed in August that his first deputy, Gilles Artigues, was the victim of sextape blackmail.
The elected official accuses the mayor of having organized a "barbouzerie" against him by having him filmed without his knowledge in a hotel room with an escort boy.
Read alsoSaint-Étienne: call for the resignation of Gaël Perdriau by 25 elected officials from the Loire
Several members of the municipal majority of Gaël Perdriau, immediately excluded from LR, then asked the mayor to step back.
The new revelations revived these requests on Thursday, in particular from elected officials from the Loire.
But Gaël Perdriau ruled out resigning, including if he were to be indicted.
Laurent Wauquiez announced Wednesday to file a defamation complaint against the mayor of Saint-Etienne, who has already been heard by the courts after the opening of a judicial inquiry this summer following the publication of the first accusations.
