Mr. Perdriau had been excused Tuesday morning from a press point in Saint Etienne by letting it be known that he was "hearing at his request" and "for the truth to come out" in the face of these accusations, as explained by his first deputy Jean-Pierre Berger.

The mayor had told his first deputy that he was approaching these hearings "with serenity", but his political family very quickly announced in a press release that they had launched "an exclusion procedure" awaiting validation by the LR political office.

At the beginning of September, the Lyon public prosecutor's office opened a judicial investigation into this case concerning the filming and use of a sexual video recorded in 2014 in which Gilles Artigues, former first municipal deputy and former deputy known for his Catholic commitment. , was being massaged by a man in a hotel room in Paris.

This investigation for "invasion of privacy, aggravated blackmail, embezzlement of public property by a person in charge of a public function, breach of trust and concealment of these offenses" was launched after a complaint from Gilles Artigues aimed at namely the mayor, one of his deputies and the former companion of the latter.

The Mediapart news site, which had revealed the affair by publishing detailed confessions of this ex-companion, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, on a "marbling of morals" in Saint-Etienne, posted new damning recordings online on Monday. for the elected 50-year-old and his chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri.

Gilles Rossary-Lenglet claims to have been paid for this video made according to him at the request of the mayor and his close guard, with fictitious services invoiced to two associations subsidized by the town hall.

"The price I gave was 50,000 euros (...), it may seem huge, but (not so much) if you put in the balance that you hold your first deputy, that you hold your municipality with your eyes closed for a whole mandate”, he said in a video interview with Mediapart.

- "Mafia activities" -

The goal was to politically neutralize a centrist first deputy whose dissident candidacy for the municipal elections of 2008 had cost the town hall to the right, according to him.

Accusations "despicable", according to Mr. Perdriau.

The custody concerns the mayor, his chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri, a municipal deputy sitting in the region Samy Kéfi-Jérôme and his ex-companion Gilles Rossary-Lenglet as well as the deputy chief of staff Claire Vocanson, indicated the prosecution of Lyons.

After the new revelations from Médiapart on Monday, the four LR parliamentarians from the Loire and twelve elected officials from the left-wing municipal opposition asked the mayor and president of the metropolis to step back while his majority distanced themselves from him.

On Twitter, the boss of senators LR Bruno Retailleau denounced "intolerable mafia actions", while the candidate for the presidency of LR Eric Ciotti - much criticized by Mr. Perdriau for his hard line - castigated a "giver of lessons" showing "the terrifying face of the worst abjection".

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"If it is now up to justice (...) to decide on the guilt and the degree of involvement of Mr. Perdriau, the Republicans can only condemn the despicable methods used by the mayor of Saint-Etienne to “against a political rival”, indicates the press release from LR published in the morning.

Municipal councilor in the UDF-Rad team from 1995 to 2008, Gaël Perdriau then sat in the opposition during the mandate of Maurice Vincent (PS), before being elected mayor in 2014 then re-elected in 2020, while presiding over the Saint-Etienne metropolis.

After having repeatedly castigated "Emmanuelle Macron's ultra-liberal policy" at the start of her first term, the elected official then fell out with the leadership of his party after criticizing the right-wing of candidate LR for the presidential election. Valérie Pécresse and her rapprochement with Eric Ciotti.

These criticisms have earned him to be removed from the vice-presidency of the Republicans.

© 2022 AFP