Accused of child crime by the mayor of Saint-Etienne, Wauquiez will file a complaint for defamation

His reaction was quick. As soon as Mediapart was finally authorized to publish new revelations on the “political methods” of Gaël Perdriau, Laurent Wauquiez announced in the process that he was going to file a complaint against the elected representative of Saint-Etienne for defamation. The reason ? The investigation reveals that the mayor of Saint-Etienne knowingly spread a rumor in 2017 concerning him and accusing him of being a child criminal.

The scene takes place on November 27, 2017, in the mayor’s office at the town hall of Saint-Etienne. Gilles Artigues, former first deputy, is present. The discussion is tense. The mayor and his chief of staff reproach him for his lack of loyalty. They threaten to broadcast a compromising video, shot three years earlier in a Parisian hotel room and in which we see him in the company of an escort boy. A sextape blackmail revealed by Mediapart having also broadcast the sound recordings of this working meeting.

“There were… little boys in supermarket parking lots”

During this conversation recorded discreetly by Gilles Artigues, the exchanges end up deflecting on Laurent Wauquiez, the LR president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. Gaël Perdriau sees him as an opponent likely to overshadow him on the national level since he is seeking the presidency of the Republicans at the time.

Furious, the mayor of Saint-Etienne accuses his deputy of having “acted behind his back” for going to a party organized by the boss of the region. Faced with the denials of his right arm, he raises his voice. Becomes threatening. “You lie, you lie, you went to play the rooster. There were people around, whom I saw. You went to the rooster saying: “How could we both fuck Perdriau?”… “, he gets carried away.

Gilles Artigues defends himself: “Wauquiez, I knew him long before you when he was a trainee at Ysingeaux…” “And he was going to… in the parking lot of the little boys’ supermarkets…”, interrupts Gaël Perdriau brutally.

Comments “made in the private context”

Five years later, the person concerned admitted to Mediapart that his accusations were only “pure slander”, indicates the information site. “These remarks are rude and unfounded, but made in the private and restricted setting of my office, in a moment of extreme tension with my first deputy”, defends the elected official. He explains that he could not bear that Laurent Wauquiez could say that there were “lost quarters of France” in Saint-Etienne.

Made aware of this rumor, the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region replied in stride on Twitter. “I did not imagine that an elected representative of the Republic could fall into such indignity, cowardly Laurent Wauquiez. Even if the person concerned was led to recognize his abject lie, I seized the judicial authority and lodged a complaint for defamation against Gaël Perdriau. »

The mayor of Saint-Etienne had taken legal action to prevent the publication of these new revelations. “After 12 days of censorship”, Mediapart was finally authorized this Wednesday to broadcast its investigation.


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