Jean-Luc Boujon, edited by Juliette Moreau Alvarez
For the first time since the “blackmail to sextape” affair, the mayor of Saint-Étienne Gaël Perdriau will face his municipal council on Monday. If, following this controversy, the politician decided to withdraw from his duties in the Metropolis, he did not leave his post as mayor in the City.
The city council promises to be stormy on Monday for the mayor of Saint-Étienne. For a month, Gaël Perdriau has been weakened by the “sextape blackmail” affair, suspected of being involved in a plot aimed at his former first deputy. A fortnight ago, the LR mayor of the town was briefly placed in police custody in Lyon. Since then, he has stepped back from his duties at the Metropolis, but not at the city. While one of his assistants, also splashed by the affair, resigned just before the weekend.
The opposition asks for a withdrawal
Gaël Perdriau will not be able to act as if nothing had happened. Impossible for him to address the 103 questions on the agenda of the municipal council without first discussing the affair which has shaken his city for a month. Moreover, the opposition elected officials, in the forefront of which the socialist Pierrick Courbon, have planned to challenge the mayor. “There are explanations that he owes to the Stéphanoises and the Stéphanois”, considers the chosen one. “We want to have answers on the current case. What we are asking for is not just that Gaël Perdriau no longer go into the field, but that he really step back from all the management of the city.”
A case that “is not what it is” according to the majority
Except that for the moment, the mayor of Saint-Étienne remains straight in his boots, despite his police custody two weeks ago and despite the resignation three days ago of the deputy behind the blackmail, the one of his relatives. But Gaël Perdriau stands up and does not intend to resign, assures Marc Chassaubéné, his cultural assistant. “He is extremely combative, because today there are many elements which show that the case is not what it is, that perhaps the defendants will become accusers tomorrow.”
The mayor of Saint-Étienne will also have to deal with the discontent of the inhabitants with two demonstrations, organized this afternoon, during the municipal council, under the windows of the Hôtel de Ville.