Gérald Darmanin assures us: the dismissal of the prefect Marie Marie Lajus would have nothing to do with her opposition to real estate projects.
The Ministry of the Interior does not like to take up the term “dismissal” on its own.
He justified to BFMTV the dismissal in early December of the prefect of Indre-et-Loire Marie Lajus, denouncing “many lies” around this affair.
In this statement from Mayotte where he spent the New Year, Gérald Darmanin affirmed that this type of decision was linked "sometimes to the behavior of each other".
Read alsoPrefect removed from office: five minutes to understand a controversial decision
The eviction of Marie Lajus has sparked an unprecedented mobilization of local elected officials, parliamentarians, heads of associations and a former attorney general of Paris through petitions, forums and letters.
"We are revocable ad nutum"
Supporters of Marie Lajus explain that she was sacked for opposing a project to set up a start-up incubator in the park of Château Louise-de-la-Vallière, in Reugny, which had irritated elected officials.
"We all considered, continued the Minister, in the responsibility that is ours and I take my responsibilities, that it was necessary to know how to change when things were not going well".
"A representative of the State must be unassailable and respectable and when this is not the case, I take my responsibilities as head of administration", he accused without mentioning the name of the prefect.
Dismissal of the favorite of Indre-et-Loire: Gérald Darmanin denounces "the lies" which are said around the departure of Marie Lajus pic.twitter.com/SoGAKNBXPU
— BFMTV (@BFMTV) January 1, 2023
Monday, when taking office, Patrice Latron, the successor of Marie Lajus, held a press conference during which he discussed this dismissal.
He thus argued that in the “exciting profession” of prefect, there were “servitudes”.
“And in these easements, he said, there is the fact that we are at the disposal of the government.
We are revocable ad nutum, that is to say with a nod.
It's part of the job requirements.
It has to be integrated.
It's extremely unpleasant when it happens to you (...) but you have to integrate it.
It's like that!
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Gérald Darmanin had also insisted on the fact that the prefects were appointed at the discretion of the government.
Their appointment is decided by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior.
But it is the Head of State who has the last word.
