After Xavier Pettinato, a former member of the mayor of Nice’s office, was heard in the preliminary investigation for “fraud and illegal taking of interest,” another affair has emerged at the Nice city hall. A search took place on Thursday at the Nice city hall. The Director of International Relations and Protocol, Martial Meunier Jourde, was taken into custody. Investigators from the financial brigade questioned him in an investigation concerning alleged influence trafficking in the project of transferring a plot of land on the Promenade des Anglais currently used as a parking lot for tour buses.
According to the Public Prosecutor of Nice, Eric de Montgolfier, interviewed by AFP (Agence France Presse), “the investigation will have to determine to what extent he could have ‘influenced the choice of the winner of the market’ linked to the sale of the land.”
Justice is investigating once again at the city hall. It questions. It does its job… Here, nothing is blamed on Jacques Peyrat nor in any other case. Justice arrives at the City Hall and the image of the city hall is tarnished, as is that of the people of Nice.
We must never forget that a man is presumed innocent until proven guilty. This also applies to the members of Senator Mayor Jacques Peyrat’s office. Nice-Première will not replace the judges. It is only regrettable for the image of a city to repeatedly see investigations arise about those who administer.
Initial rumors had already indicated a tension pre-internal campaign within the left or right parties (Socialist Party and UMP not to name them). Here, a new judicial stone in the Nice pond destabilizes the Senator Mayor… and this inevitably harms the people of Nice and politicians in general who are trying to regain the trust of the voters.
