Interior Minister Gerald Darmanin justified to BFM TV the dismissal in early December of the prefect of Indre-et-Loire Marie Lajus, denouncing “many lies” around this affair. In this statement since Mayotte where he spent the New Year, Darmanin claimed that the decision to dismiss the prefect had “nothing to do with real estate projects”. “But sometimes to the behavior of each other,” he added.
The eviction of Marie-Lajus sparked an unprecedented mobilization of local elected officials, parliamentarians, heads of associations and a former attorney general of Paris through petitions, forums and letters. Supporters of Lajus explain that she was sacked for having opposed a project to set up a start-up incubator in the park of the Château Louise-de-la-Vallière, in Reugny, which had irritated elected officials.
“We all considered, continued the Minister, in the responsibility that is ours and I take my responsibilities, that it was necessary to know how to change when things were not going well. “A representative of the State must be unassailable and respectable and when this is not the case, I take my responsibilities as head of administration”, he accused without mentioning the name of the prefect .
” It’s like that ! »
On Monday, when he took office, Patrice Latron, the successor to Lajus, held a press conference during which he mentioned this dismissal. He thus argued that in the “exciting profession” of prefect, there were “servitudes”.
“And in these easements, he said, there is the fact that we are at the disposal of the government. One is revocable ad nutum, that is to say with a nod of the head. It’s part of the job requirements. It has to be integrated. It’s extremely unpleasant when it happens to you (…) but you have to integrate it. It’s like that ! »
Gérald Darmanin had also insisted on the fact that the prefects were appointed at the discretion of the government. Their appointment is decided by the Council of Ministers on the proposal of the Minister of the Interior. But it is the Head of State who has the last word.