The mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau (ex-LR), indicted for "blackmail" in a sex tape case that has shaken his city for several months, wants to punish one of his centrist deputies for "lack of respect", announced this Wednesday, June 7, the municipal majority.
A council of the municipal majority voted unanimously on Monday for the withdrawal of the delegations of Lionel Boucher (UDI), in charge of the coordination of animations and major events, with 27 for and 1 against, 6 did not take part in the vote, according to a statement from the municipality published on Wednesday.
'Lack of decency and respect'
The majority thus expresses its "disapproval" vis-à-vis the one who "no longer participates in working meetings (...) nor does he carry the files for which he received delegation from the mayor" but also because of "his incriminating remarks", with a "lack of decency and respect vis-à-vis his elected colleagues of the municipal majority and the mayor, at the last meeting of the municipal council". This dismissal must still be submitted to the next municipal council on June 26.
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Gaël Perdriau shames our city while the justice has indicted him", "he punishes me because (...) I said loud and clear what all Saint-Etienne residents think," he said in a statement. "I count on a burst of honor and courage on the part of my colleagues," he added, calling on them not to be "complicit in these mafia excesses". Gaël Perdriau has always claimed to be "innocent" in the case of blackmail to the intimate video compromising his former centrist deputy, Gilles Artigues, which earned him to be indicted last April. The 50-year-old elected official was implicated in this "barbouzage of morals" by the companion of another of his former deputies who had revealed the case to Mediapart at the end of August 2022.
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The sex tape shot in January 2015 shows Gilles Artigues, his political rival, being massaged by a man in a hotel room in Paris. One of the protagonists indicted claims to have mounted this operation at the request of the mayor and his entourage in order to neutralize the centrist elected official. The last city council, in May, was marked by a breakdown, led by a hundred demonstrators who invaded City Hall to demand the resignation of the mayor. The group was repelled by the municipal police, with the use of tear gas and the mayor had filed a complaint against X for "damage to public property".
