A political thunderclap in Orange: Mayor Jacques Bompard must resign as soon as possible. The Court of Cassation yesterday rejected his appeal, the last recourse after his conviction to five years of ineligibility for illegal taking of interest.
It is the end of several years of proceedings. The facts go back to 2003. The mayor of the Southern League of Orange then grants his daughter and son-in-law payment facilities to buy municipal premises, by authorizing the couple to pay in three installments. The elected official also grants a right of way for his villa in Orange. The first trial was held in May 2019, then on appeal in January 2021 and Jacques Bompard was finally sentenced to a one-year suspended prison sentence, a 30,000 euros fine and five years of ineligibility for illegal taking of interest. With this judgment of the Court of Cassation, the penalty must apply.
The end of a political reign in Orange
Jacques Bompard will therefore have to resign as soon as possible. The city council will meet to elect his successor. This decision of the Court of Cassation marks the end of a reign in Orange: the elected official has occupied the chair of mayor since 1995. He has always been reelected, sometimes even in the first round, first under the colors of the National Front, then under the banner of his own party, the Southern League. He was re-elected for a fifth consecutive term in 2020.
The opposition is delighted in a press release “sentence finally applicable”. Jacques Bompard, him, denounces a decision “Politics” and “arbitrary”. “There was no personal enrichment or embezzlement, I have nothing to be ashamed of”, he writes, and promises to go to the market this Thursday morning to meet the people of Orange.