for Gérald Darmanin, “a representative of the State must be unassailable and respectable”

The Minister of the Interior and Overseas, Gérald Darmanin, with elected officials Mansour Kamardine and Rachadi Abdou during a visit to Mayotte, Saturday December 31, 2022. GREGOIRE MEROT / AFP

Interior Minister Gérald Darmanin spoke for the first time on Sunday 1^is January, on the dismissal of the prefect of Indre-et-Loire, Marie Lajus, by denouncing “lots of lies” around this case on BFM-TV.

In this statement from Mayotte, where he is traveling, Mr. Darmanin affirmed that the decision to dismiss the prefect from office had not “nothing to do with real estate projects”. “But sometimes to the behavior of each other”, he added sibyllinely. The eviction of Marie Lajus has sparked an unprecedented mobilization of local elected officials, parliamentarians, heads of associations and a former attorney general of Paris through a petition, a forum and letters.

The supporters of M^me Lajus explain that she was sacked for opposing a project to set up an incubator for research projects in the park of the Château Louise-de-la-Vallière, in Reugny, which had irritated elected officials. “We all consideredcontinued the Minister, in the responsibility that is ours, and I take my responsibilities, that you had to know how to change when things were not going well”. “A representative of the State must be unassailable and respectable and when this is not the case, I take my responsibilities as head of administration”he accused without mentioning the name of the prefect.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers The brutal eviction of Marie Lajus, an extraordinary prefect victim of “negative” feedback from elected officials

Monday, when taking office, Patrice Latron, the successor to M^me Lajus, held a press conference during which he mentioned this dismissal. He thus argued that in the “exciting job” of prefect, there was “easements”.

“In these servitudeshe said, there is the fact that we are at the disposal of the government. We are revocable to nod, that is, with a nod. It’s part of the job requirements. It has to be integrated. It’s extremely unpleasant when it happens to you (…) but you have to integrate it. It’s like that ! » Gérald Darmanin had also insisted on the fact that the prefects were appointed at the discretion of the government. Their appointment is decided by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior, with the Head of State having the last word.

The World with AFP