The suspense was short-lived. Two days following his conviction by the Paris National Financial Prosecutor’s Office (PNF) for “Embezzlement of public funds”, the president of the departmental council of Gers, Philippe Martin (Socialist Party, PS), former minister of ecology, sustainable development and energy (2013-2014) under the five-year term of François Hollande, announced his resignation, Thursday January 6.
A political earthquake in the Gers, because Philippe Martin had been at the head of the departmental council since 1998: “When leaving the presidency of our local authority, my state of mind is a mixture of sadness, pride and confidence”, he said in a press conference. It was under his former mandate as deputy for the Gers that Philippe Martin was prosecuted for having, between 2002 and 2013, paid his ex-wife, Joëlle Martin, for a fictitious job of parliamentary assistant. Summoned by the PNF, Tuesday, January 4, as part of a prior admission of guilt (CRPC), having acknowledged the facts just like his ex-wife, he was sentenced to two years in prison and three years of ineligibility for “embezzlement of public funds”.
This conviction caused astonishment in the department and strong criticism of La République en Marche (LRM) – without elected to the departmental council -, speaking d’“Fillon Gers case”, and the right-wing opposition to the departmental council asking him to resign. He himself had recently said: “If one day there is a question that requires me to take my responsibilities, I will take them. If it’s inescapable, I won’t make it last. I do not approve of the attitude of elected officials who multiply the procedures to last. “
A succession without a dolphin
His formalized resignation, the question of the succession at the head of the departmental council of the man who, for twenty-three years, politically embodied the department, unparalleled heavyweight of the Gers Socialist Party, which remains in the greatest embarrassment, is already being raised. today. Certainly, Philippe Martin had declared that this was his last mandate, but the elected representative of the canton of Valence-sur-Baïse had not let anything publicly filter on a possible succession. For the time being, as provided for in the electoral code, it is the first vice-president, Céline Salles, who will act as interim president of the department. A woman at the head of the “Parliament of Gascony” is already a first for the department.
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