Mayor Gaël Perdriau denounces a “machination”

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This is the first time that he has spoken at length about this alleged blackmail affair on intimate video: the mayor LR of Saint-Etienne denounces a “machination” in an interview granted to France Inter Thursday, September 8, in the premises of his lawyer Maître Ingrain, in Paris.

The intimate video blackmail affair was revealed by Médiapart on August 26 (paid article). The investigation site reveals that a deputy mayor of the city of Saint-Etienne, Samy Kéfi-Jérôme, organized a filmed meeting with a gay escort at the end of 2014 to trap Gilles Artigues, then first deputy (UDI). At his side, as co-organizer of the plot and companion at the time, Gilles Rossary-Lenglet.

It was he who revealed the affair to Médiapart. He claims to have received 50,000 euros from the town hall to trap Gilles Artigues: “A part in hard cash and another part in advantage, in kind” he says. According to him, 40,000 euros passed through two associations, including the association of artists of the Plural Art gallery (AGAP), which received 20,000 euros from the city. “I made invoices on which we put a ‘gloubiboulga’ of activities and they paid me“, he details. “I received sums of 1,500 here, 1,000 there over a year and a half“, continues the former elected official. The president of AGAP assures that Gilles Rossary-Lenglet has worked well for his association, which the person denies.

The grant file that France Inter was able to consult promises the launch by a service provider of an international contemporary art fair which will never take place. “I didn’t have the network to create this“, he underlines. The subsidy is then voted in July 2015 in emergency, a few months after the filming of the video. A request made directly by the cabinet of the mayor Gaël Perdriau, for whom everything was done legally: “There is a budget line for contingencies because we actually had to help open the gallery on one side and be able to prepare the program on the other.“, justifies the mayor.

Another disturbing element, the budget of the project carried by the AGAP, which includes 3,500 euros of financing obtained on the “parliamentary reserve” of the socialist deputy at the time Régis Juanico. The former parliamentarian assures France Inter that he has checked his archives and has never received any request.

Mediapart has, since the end of August, released new revelations. This Tuesday, the site published sound recordings which date from last April, well before the revelation of the affair, where we hear Gaël Perdriau speak “as a result of Artigues“. In another sequence, the elected LR says “if things [la vidéo] will be on the table, it [Gilles Artigues] is dead“. These soundtracks prove, according to Médiapart, that Gaël Perdriau knew of the existence of this video.

Interviewed on the subject, Gaël Perdriau affirms to have had wind “of a rumor that evoked this video, as there were other rumors concerning Gilles Artigues, concerning me, concerning other elected officials“. He justifies his remarks in the Mediapart sound recordings by explaining that he was made aware, a month before, of the existence of the intimate video by Gilles Rossary-Lenglet. According to him, “Mediapart lacks tangible proof, it had to be produced“.

Asked if he trapped Gilles Artigues, if he commissioned this intimate video to be able to put pressure on a member of his majority, the politician answers: “Never ! Never ever ! I am an honest, loyal man and, what is more, without any reason to enter into this kind of compromise.“

For him, it’s a “terrible plot which aims to [le] dirty“. He specifies that at the end of 2016, Gilles Artigues evokes in front of him “this rumour, without developing it, without explaining to me that there were tangible elements. He did not confirm the veracity of this rumor to me. At no time did he express any distress or request for support or help”.

As a reminder, Gilles Artigues filed a complaint for “aggravated blackmail, ambush in an organized gang, embezzlement of public funds and non-denunciation of criminal acts”.

Gaël Perdriau denies having exerted political pressure on Gilles Artigues, asking him in particular not to stand in the legislative elections: “He was a candidate in all the elections he wanted.“

“The purpose of this scheme is to [me] destroy, to eliminate me from the political landscape of Saint-Etienne”.

Gaël Perdriau, mayor of Saint-Etienne

at France Inter

He adds that he was approached during the summer by LR deputies and mayors to run for the presidency of the party and suspects “rivals“Potential (the name of Laurent Wauquiez or Eric Ciotti is mentioned in the interview), to have orchestrated the publication of this affair. “Why would a case that dates back to 2015, eight years ago, come out precisely today?“

In this case, the Lyon prosecutor’s office is in charge of the investigation for “aggravated blackmail”, after the complaint filed by Gilles Artigues. Searches took place at the town hall of Saint-Etienne on Monday. Gaël Perdriau filed a complaint for “slanderous denunciation concerning the false declarations of Gilles Artigues”, announced his lawyers.


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