“In the prefecture, everyone thinks it’s disgusting,” said a prefect, on condition of anonymity. The fifty elected officials and local officials who signed a column in Le Monde on Monday against his ouster seem to be of his opinion. The eviction of Marie Lajus, prefect of Indre-et-Loire, is having a lot of trouble getting through locally.
However, it has been effective since the Council of Ministers of December 7, in response to a proposal by Gérald Darmanin. Minister of the Interior who, according to Le Canard enchaîné of December 14, would have acceded to the request of elected representatives of the majority who were furious at the opposition of the prefect to the project to set up a start-up incubator and of researchers, baptized Da Vinci Labs, in an unbuildable wooded area in the park of the Louise-de-la-Vallière castle, in Reugny, near Tours.
She had warned the elected officials, according to concordant sources, that if they decided to make the land constructible, she would be obliged to attack the legality of this decision in the name of the Climate and Resilience Law.
2,000 signatures for a petition
In their tribune, his supporters salute “the professionalism” of the prefect, “his” impartiality, his probity and his humanity “and call on President Emmanuel Macron to repair” this injustice “. A petition, initiated by Charentais and entitled ” Marie Lajus, an honest prefect “collected nearly 2,000 signatures on Wednesday afternoon”.
Questioned by AFP, the office of the Minister of the Interior argued that the appointments of prefects fell “within the discretionary power of the executive”. No further comment. These senior civil servants, whose body will disappear to merge next January 1 into that of “State administrators”, have the mission of implementing public policies in their department and are therefore the armed arms of the rulers.
Marie Lajus entered the prefectural office ten years ago, after a career as a police commissioner. She was notably spokesperson for the Paris police headquarters. She is described as brilliant, “hyper hardworking” and endowed with a strong character. “Intransigent” on respect for the rules, she must have annoyed some elected officials, explains one of those who worked with her.
The article of the Duck under glass
But the broadcast on social networks of a video taken the day of his departure from the prefecture of Tours has irritated the majority. We see Marie Lajus brandishing the article, put under glass, from the Canard enchaîné. A gift from his collaborators. “It’s disloyal,” said a member of the majority to AFP. “The broadcast of this video was not of his doing. Just as she has nothing to do with the petition or the platform, ”assures those around her who fear that all of this will ultimately serve her.
In a press release, the municipal council of Reugny assured “that no form of pressure has been exerted by the municipal elected officials in charge of the file” and denounced “such schemes, if they are proven”, before “s associated with the tribute paid” to Mrs. Lajus “as to her qualities of probity, integrity and her keen sense of the general interest”.