“I am right-wing, but I would still prefer that the Nice town hall goes left rather than remain in the hands of Jacques Peyrat.” Jean-Marie Tarragoni does not hide it: the main purpose of his newspaper’s columns is to denounce the policy of the current Nice town hall. A lawyer by training, a career military man, and a journalist for 15 years, Jean-Marie Tarragoni has discovered a passion: to scratch where it hurts. The director of the Standard is inexhaustible on the shaky or crooked files of the Nice town hall: the grand stadium, the detention center, Place Arson, the tramway, and many others. We get lost, not him. Since the launch of the Standard, a regional general information newspaper, Jean-Marie Tarragoni has continued to publish investigations into the mishaps of the Nice town hall. His obsession? “Tell the truth about the strange way our public money is being used.”
It seems that the Standard is finally really disturbing: the facade of its offices bears traces of buckshot since the weekly was targeted last April. “This is the first time since the end of the Algerian War that a newspaper has been shot at, in France,” protests Jean-Marie Tarragoni. According to the director of the Standard, his designer received a letter from Jacques Peyrat, senator-mayor of Nice, and two lawsuits from the town hall are underway. Still, according to its director, some files of the Standard have led to deliberations at the town hall, notably on the JC Decaux affair or the savings to be made on the officials’ company cars.
“Nice deserves better than this contempt for ethics”
“The Prefect of the Alpes-Maritimes declared in his last wishes to the press that we should be less docile and worthy of being read. He is right. If it’s to talk about trains that arrive on time, I don’t see the point. Our city is worth fighting for to end this culture of corruption,” declares Jean-Marie Tarragoni. To talk about his disagreement with the City’s policy, he invited a friend, Gilles Buscia, author of the book Jacques Peyrat, the bravado. The two men were part of the senator-mayor’s cabinet from 1995 to 1997. They resigned, disappointed: “After the Médecin years, we hoped this new team would make a change. That wasn’t the case. And to say that in 1995, Jacques Peyrat was elected against the RPR, because people were fed up with amateurism…,” declares the director of the Standard.
Now, what does Jean-Marie Tarragoni hope for? “I expect elected officials to take responsibility regarding Jacques Peyrat’s conduct. I try to bring the truth to the people of Nice so they can hold him accountable. I hope the UMP does not support his candidacy in the municipal elections.” For these upcoming elections, the director of the Standard plans to be present, but in another way, yet to be defined: “In any case, I will be in this municipal campaign as an ‘engaged spectator’. If Jacques Peyrat is to fall, he will fall on his own. I will organize meetings, debates.”
It is said that Parisian elected officials are more prone to insomnia on Tuesday evenings. The next morning, Le Canard Enchaîné is at the kiosks. Does Jean-Marie Tarragoni’s newspaper give nightmares to our local officials? Perhaps: “some people in Nice already call it the Canard Enchaîné of the Côte d’Azur.” The Standard is only printed in 15,000 copies distributed for free, but it is available online. You can read it directly on the web by paying a subscription, or print it for free. Without any advertising, it is entirely funded by Jean-Marie Tarragoni. He created the newspaper in 1988 and felt the need to revive it a few months ago, to “not leave Jacques Peyrat with the exclusive right to speak. Hoping that one day, the Standard will have no reason to exist.”
