Should the mayor of Saint-Etienne Gaël Perdriau resign?

• Auditioned for nearly 5 hours on Tuesday, Gaël Perdriau emerged free, without being indicted at this stage of the investigation.

• The mayor of Saint-Etienne and president of the Saint-Etienne metropolis is suspected of being involved in a case of sextape blackmail.

• Should he resign?

  LR deputies and elected opposition members are now asking that he step back from his political functions.

“Despicable methods.

“The day after the latest revelations from

, the Republican party launched an exclusion procedure against Gaël Perdriau, the mayor of Saint-Etienne suspected of being involved in a case of sextape blackmail.

On Tuesday, the elected official was placed in police custody at the premises of the Lyon PJ in order to be heard.

He came out after five hours without being indicted or subject to judicial review at this stage of the investigation.

"If it is up to justice to decide on the guilt and the degree of involvement of Gaël Perdriau, the methods used to eliminate a political rival are unworthy of an elected representative of the Republic", slice Annie Genevard, president of the Republicans , in which the mayor of Saint-Etienne is no longer welcome.

But this eviction would have “no real impact”, estimates François Massardier, president of the Stéphanois of Paris, who has long worked alongside the mayor.

“Gaël Perdriau is not necessarily extremely involved in the national bodies of the party.

He does not get along very well with the local officials, he maintains fresh relations with Laurent Wauquiez.

He never really needed the support of the Republicans to hold the city, ”he analyzes.

Overwhelming conversations

The question now is whether the elected can still remain at the head of the town hall and the metropolis.

The elected representatives of the majority were careful not to answer the question, even if they condemn "with the greatest firmness the comments made" and broadcast Monday evening by

.

The conversations in question prove to be overwhelming for the elected official and his chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri.

They were recorded by the victim of blackmail Gilles Artigues, former first deputy, who was filmed without his knowledge during a meeting with an escort-boy, in 2014.

“I have a video showing you the ass in the air with a guy.

It does not bother you ?

The very Catholic deputy Gilles Artigues very good father in something like that?

“, then launches the chief of staff in an audio recording dating from July 2018. Facing his interlocutor, the man claims to have “no faith or law”, assumes to “operate like a criminal” and threatens him to send the video to his children.

Perdriau warns him: if the elected official were to file a complaint, the video could be broadcast "in small circles, sparingly" or on the Internet.

What would break him immediately "Once it's on the networks, it's no longer blackmail, it's an execution", warns the mayor.

“Collaborative Methods”

Words that “shocked” Dino Cinieri, deputy Les Républicains de la Loire.

With the three other LR parliamentarians from the department, he co-signed a text requiring Gaël Perdriau to "immediately step back" from his political functions.

“I am disgusted, furious, he confides.

Gaël Perdriau dreamed of being a presidential candidate, he hoped to become a minister.

Today, it is all about grandeur and decadence.

Faithful support of Gilles Artigues whom he describes as a "beautiful person" and "loyal", the Loire deputy "screams with anger".

Deplores methods worthy of "collaborators".

“Be aware of the wickedness, the cowardice, the baseness.

These remarks, these manipulations are unacceptable.

Perdriau and his team of spooks no longer deserve to be at the head of the town hall and the metropolis of Saint-Etienne”,

"Legally, nothing justifies its withdrawal", nuance for his part François Massardier who nevertheless considers "the surprising affair" as well as "the methods used".

“Gaël Perdriau's defense is shattered, day after day.

Trust in his word is completely broken, just like that placed in his chief of staff who assumes his criminal methods, ”said Pierrick Courbon, elected from the opposition group Saint-Etienne Demain.

He, too, is waiting for the mayor and all the suspected protagonists to step back.

"Regardless of the judicial inquiry, the political situation is untenable," he argues.

This would ensure with serenity the continuity of the work carried out at the town hall and in the metropolis, he judges.

Today, the meetings are canceled in cascade, the appointments do not take place.

We need interlocutors available, fully mobilized.

However, we are no longer advancing.

So we can't go on like this.

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Policy

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Sextape blackmail in Saint-Etienne: What we know about the case that would involve Mayor Gaël Perdriau

• Blackmail

• sextape

• The Republicans (LR)

• Saint Etienne

• Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes

• Company