The president of the UDI in the Loire had remained silent since the revelations of Médiapart on the blackmail to the intimate video of which the former first deputy mayor of Saint-Étienne, the centrist Gilles Artigues, would have been the victim. A UDI press conference was scheduled for Monday, September 5 on the subject, but a week after the article was published, Lionel Boucher finally decided to speak in a video posted on his Facebook page.
The complicit silence of several colleagues of the majority questions
The deputy mayor in charge of events and logistics first expresses “publicly, as president of the UDI de la Loire, _[son] support for [son] friend Gilles Artigues_“. He specifies that he has met and exchanged several times with the former first deputy mayor of Saint-Étienne for a week, and that Gilles Artigues is “serene, as if freed from the weight that weighed on him”.
We will demand accountability, including on the financial aspects of the case
Regarding the facts revealed by Médiapart, Lionel Boucher declares: “We knew nothing of this plot, but we realized that [Gilles Artigues] faded more and more” and that he “agreed to submit to decisions that were surprising to say the least”. The president of the UDI goes on to insist on the fact of not having “never let go” the former first deputy mayor of Saint-Étienne, “including whenhe suffered public humiliations in majority meetings“. On this point, Lionel Boucher, who is part of the municipal majority, adds: “the complicit silence of several colleagues of the majority questions, I hope it also questions their conscience”.
Visibly moved, the president of the UDI de la Loire then speaks about the suicidal thoughts mentioned by Gilles Artigues following the revelations. “It freezes me”comments Lionel Boucher, who assures that the UDI “[demandera] accounts, including of course the financial aspects of this file”. On this aspect*, another member of the Saint-Etienne municipal council, the leader of the left-wing opposition Pierrick Courbon, filed a complaint against X on September 1, for fraud in deliberation and embezzlement of public funds.
*according to the revelations of Mediapart, Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, deputy mayor of Saint-Étienne, and his former companion Gilles Rossary-Lenglet, would have asked Gilles Artigues for 50,000 euros in return for the erotic video at the heart of the case. This sum would then have passed through municipal grants to two associations, before being paid to the two men.