A video published on October 1 revealed that the former chief of staff of the mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau, was considering another sex-tape blackmail. The lack of condemnation from the mayor is “the element too many” for municipal councilor Jacques Guarinos. He has just resigned.
This is a first defection since the Mediapart revelations in August 2022. Indeed, the sex-tape political blackmail affair, which has been agitating the city of Saint-Etienne for months, has just led to the resignation of the councilor municipal Jacques Guarinos, close to mayor Gaël Perdriau (ex-LR).
“It’s a personal decision, I no longer feel in agreement with my values“, Jacques Guarinos is moved. The 61-year-old doctor of astronomy presented his resignation to the mayor of Saint-Etienne on Monday evening.
This comes after new confessions from Gilles Rossary-Lenglet: at the end of September the latter submitted to the courts and to Mediapart a new video proving his involvement in a blackmail project against the former mayor of Saint-Etienne, Michel Thiollière ( UMP-Rad).
In this video dating back, according to the person concerned, to June 2015, we see him discussing with the chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri the possibility of trapping Mr. Thiollière by filming him with an underage prostitute.
“That the mayor did not condemn the attitude of his former chief of staff, all of that, for me, was too much.” regrets Jacques Guarinos.
Until now, Gaël Perdriau had managed to preserve cohesion in his camp, even after his indictment for “blackmail” due to his alleged involvement in the use of an intimate video shot in January 2015. The film showed his former centrist first deputy Gilles Artigues being massaged by a man in a hotel room.
Three other people were indicted in April at the same time as him: his then chief of staff Pierre Gauttieri, one of his former deputies Samy Kéfi-Jérôme and the latter’s ex-companion, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet , at the origin of the Médiapart revelations.
The mayor and president of the metropolis of Saint-Etienne has always proclaimed his innocence in this affair. Two municipal elected officials from the right and the center have since sat outside the municipal majority, while the opposition calls for the resignation of the mayor.
Excluded from the Les Républicains party, Gaël Perdriau refused to give up his elective functions, while withdrawing from the metropolis.
Concerning his resignation, Jacques Guarinos speaks of a “difficult decision“.”I was weighing up the fact of respecting my commitment to the service of the people of Saint-Etienne but on the other hand, I felt so bad about this affair where the mayor does not take responsibility for the seriousness of the recorded remarks that he had made and for which he did not is not excused.”
“The latest revelations are lamentable. They have further added to the disgust that this affair inspires in meprotests Jacques Guarinos. One wonders if it was not Pierre Gauttieri’s habit to imagine mafia operations and in the case of Gilles Rossary-Lenglet to carry them out.” said the man who was the vice-president of an association supporting the re-election of Gaël Perdriau in 2020.
Elected officials from the PS and related municipal group welcomed this in a press release.courageous decision“hoping for his resignation”would lead to others“. The publication of the new video by Mediapart sparked new calls for the mayor’s resignation.
Summoned by the Republicans to distance themselves, several municipal elected officials preferred to return their cards to the party. “It would be inconsistent for us to form a group independent of that of the majority (….) of which we support all the decisions taken in municipal council“, explained the last three LR deputies in a press release published at the end of September.