The mayor of Saint-Etienne Gaël Perdriau (ex-Les Républicains, LR) is sent to criminal court for “defamation” towards the management of a burlesque art festival, ArcomiK, Agence France-Presse (AFP) learned from from the complainant, then from the mayor's office.
The case, which will be raised on February 4, 2025 before the 17th chamber of the Paris Criminal Court, has no link with the “sextape” blackmail which has agitated his city since August 2022 and which has earned him a triple fine. examination for blackmail, embezzlement of public funds and criminal association, according to information from AFP.
The mayor and president of the metropolis of Saint-Etienne will be judged at the same time as his deputy for culture, Marc Chassaubéné, indicted like him for “public defamation of an individual”, for comments made in municipal council and broadcast in live on the city’s website on January 22, 2022, again according to the same sources.
The private festival of subsidies since 2022
During the debates, Mr. Chassaubéné announced “the end of a long odious history of blackmail, which shamelessly plays on the reality of social difficulties, of the need for cultural enrichment” after questions from the opposition on the suspension of municipal subsidies for this festival.
He had also mentioned “abuses” attributable to his “provider director” evoking “opaque” functioning, “unhealthy cronyism”. The artistic director of ArcomiK, Farid Bouabdellah, then decided to sue the mayor and his deputy for defamation.
Although deprived since 2022 of subsidies from the town hall and the Saint-Etienne metropolis (69,000 euros on a budget of nearly 300,000 euros), the festival is preparing to open its 21st edition on February 22, with headliners like Anne Roumanoff.
“Not proof of blackmail”
Embroiled for many months in the “sextape” blackmail affair revealed by Mediapart, Mr. Perdriau once again said he was “determined to continue [his] mission as mayor until the end”. “There is no proof of blackmail against anyone and for good reason there is no blackmail,” assured the man who was re-elected for six years during the last municipal elections of 2020, under the LR label.
At the heart of the scandal, his possible role in the shooting, in January 2015, and the use of a video recording in which we see his centrist ex-first deputy, Gilles Artigues, being massaged by an escort boy in a bedroom. 'hotel.
Abandoned by the leadership of the Republicans, vilified by his opponents, but also by some of his political allies, the 51-year-old elected official has withdrawn from the metropolis, but retains the majority in the city, from which he took the reins in 2014 with the support of the man who now accuses him of blackmail, UDI Gilles Artigues.
