Fourteen months after the revelation of the sextape blackmail affair at the town hall of Saint-Etienne, the camp of Gaël Perdriau, which had until then stood behind the elected official, seems to be cracking. One of its municipal councilors Jacques Guarinos resigned Monday evening due to “deep discomfort”. A discomfort linked to the affair, he explains, and which “has only grown” since August 2022.
This departure comes after new confessions from Gilles Rossary-Lenglet. At the end of September, the latter handed over to justice and Mediapart a new video proving his involvement in a blackmail project against the former mayor of Saint-Etienne, Michel Thiollière.
In this video shot in 2015, we see him discussing with Pierre Gauttieri, Gaël Perdriau’s former chief of staff, the possibility of trapping Michel Thiollière by filming him with an underage prostitute. A method which is reminiscent of that used against Gilles Artigues, filmed that same year without his knowledge with an escort boy massaging him in a hotel room.
” Disgust “
“The latest revelations have further added to the disgust that this affair inspires in me, especially since we can now wonder if the appalling practices that it brought to light did not constitute an operating system,” argues Jacques Guarinos, who was the vice-president of an association supporting the re-election of Gaël Perdriau in 2020.
Elected officials from the PS and related municipal group welcomed his “courageous decision” in a press release, hoping that his resignation “would lead to others”.
Indicted for “blackmail” in the sex tape affair, Gaël Perdriau has always refused to give up his apron, claiming his innocence.