“A profound injustice.” In a column published in The world This Monday, some fifty local elected officials, officials and civil society actors affirm their “support” for Marie Lajus, dismissed – without notice or new assignment – from her duties as prefect of Indre-et-Loire by decree on 7 last December.
According to information from chained duck, this departure would have been determined at the highest level of the State under pressure from local elected officials. The newspaper thus quotes an environmental mayor according to which elected officials “have sent SMS non-stop to Gérald Darmanin”, the Minister of the Interior, to complain about the prefect, in office since 2020.
“Keeper of the Law”
It deals in particular: a disagreement over a local file of a start-up incubator in the park of the Château Louise de la Vallière, within the department. Located in the town of Reugny, it is classified as a historical monument. For this specific point, but also because the installation area is wooded, the prefecture had expressed its reservations about this project carried out by elected officials of the department.
The planned area “is not buildable, both in terms of the urban code and in regards to the principles of the Climate and Resilience Law of 2021”, write the signatories of the forum published in The world. Thereafter, the prefect “exercise[é] their role as guarantor of the law”, they insist, while accusing local elected officials of “privileging economic benefits over environmental protection” and of “ignoring the law”.
“No Form of Pressure”
On December 21, the Reugny city council reacted by publishing a press release on its website. “The only implication of the municipality in this project is to carry out, in accordance with the Climate and Resilience Law, an environmental study, currently underway, which will continue with a public consultation scheduled for 2023”, can be read in this text. .
“To date, the final decision still requires many steps,” the municipality said.
Regarding the revelations of chained duck “We affirm that no type of pressure has been exerted by the elected municipal officials in charge of this file,” it is also written. “We do not sympathize in any way with this type of action contrary to the republican principles to which we adhere,” finally adds the City Council.
“Long live the press”
For her part, Marie Lajus had praised the work of the newspaper during her farewell party a few days ago. Holding a framed item from the chained duck With the article that concerns her, the official had declared: “Long live the press, long live the free press.”
Socialist Senator Nicole Bonnefoy, who signed the column published in the columns of the World, He wrote to Gérald Darmanin, as well as Élisabeth Borne and Emmanuel Macron to “denounce the dismissal of the prefect Marie Lajus”. She also addressed a written question to the Prime Minister in her parliamentary capacity.
Source: BFM TV
