Laurence Arribagé will have to explain himself to the courts. The former deputy (Les Républicains), current deputy mayor of Toulouse, is referred to the Paris Criminal Court on suspicion of attempted electoral destabilization, targeting her rival LREM Corinne Vignon during the 2017 legislative elections, a source said on Tuesday. judiciary at Agence France Presse. The elected mayor of Toulouse will be tried for concealment of slanderous denunciation, concealment of violation of professional secrecy and concealment of illegal taking of interests.
At the end of this judicial investigation, opened in Toulouse then disoriented in Paris, two other people will also have to appear before the court. One for slanderous denunciation, violation of professional secrecy and illegal taking of interests and the other for slanderous denunciation and concealment of violation of professional secrecy, according to the judicial source. According to a source familiar with the matter, it is Marc Menvielle, former number two in public finance in Occitanie, and the former employer of Ms. Vignon.
The case dates back to the in-between rounds of the legislative elections in June 2017, in the third constituency of Haute-Garonne. The LREM candidate Corinne Vignon was then struggling with the outgoing LR deputy, Laurence Arribagé, when a denunciation of concealed work targeting Ms. Vignon was launched by Marc Menvielle, deputy director of public finances for the Occitanie region. The election of Mrs. Vignon had not, however, been compromised.
Horoscope and denunciation
Corrine Vignon, amateur astrologer in addition to being a salesperson, had made three horoscopes a few years earlier, for an amount of around 200 euros, without declaring them. These facts, objects of the report for concealed work, having been considered derisory, the Toulouse prosecutor’s office had finally closed the procedure without further action.
But at the time of the opening of the judicial investigation in January 2021, the Toulouse prosecutor’s office had mentioned “a fraudulent and concerted enterprise to interfere in this campaign“. Mr. Menvielle had denounced, without informing his hierarchy, without prior investigation, facts likely to harm Corinne Vignon, for the benefit of Laurence Arribagé, with the complicity of a magistrate, according to a source close to the investigation.
The magistrate in question, Patrice Michel, deputy prosecutor of Toulouse at the time and now retired, was not indicted during the investigation but placed under the more favorable status of assisted witness, according to a source. close to the survey. He is therefore not sent back to correctional.
(with AFP)