The political office of the Republicans (LR) has sealed its fate. The mayor of Saint-Etienne, Gaël Perdriau, implicated in a “sextape” blackmail scandal, was definitively expelled from the party during a political office, Tuesday, October 11, by a unanimous vote.
This decision is not surprising: LR had initiated an exclusion procedure against the city councilor on September 13, following the revelations of Mediapart on his questioning in the case of political blackmail at the “sextape” in his commune.
Already relieved of his leadership duties at the end of 2021
Former vice-president of the Republicans, Gaël Perdriau had already been relieved of his responsibilities within the right-wing party in December 2021, after his comments critical of Valérie Pécresse and Eric Ciotti, candidates for the party congress in sight. of the presidential.
The affair that broke out at the end of August gave his party a reason to try to root him out of its ranks. In very detailed confessions to the independent media, a former collaborator of the municipality then revealed the underside of a “daubering of manners” sponsored, according to him, by the mayor and his entourage to neutralize the former centrist first deputy, Gilles Artigues. According to this relative, the operation was remunerated through fictitious services invoiced to two local cultural associations subsidized by the town hall.
A judicial inquiry was opened in Lyon after a complaint from Mr. Artigues. The latter denounced the political trap of which he would have been the victim on the part of Mr. Perdriau and his chief of staff after the taking of a video in January 2015 and the blackmail of which it was the instrument. The video shows this former deputy known for his Catholic commitment and his homophobic positions being massaged by a man in a hotel room in Paris.
Indicted in mid-September with two of his close politicians, Mr. Perdriau has constantly denied the facts and has remained deaf to calls from those who asked him to take leave from his mandate. The scandal, however, prompted him to dismiss his chief of staff, then to go on leave from the presidency of the Metropolis, while one of his assistants, accused of being the one who shot the compromising video, presented his resignation.