The prospect of new municipal elections in Bondy is becoming clearer. This Thursday, the public rapporteur for the Council of State issued an opinion in which she recommends the cancellation of the results of the ballot which had seen the victory of Stephen Hervé (LR). The Supreme Administrative Court is expected to issue its decision in the coming weeks. Anything else announces that the organization of partial municipal elections would be a surprise, the institution of the Palais-Royal generally following the recommendations of its public rapporteur.
In June 2020, Stephen Hervé, then an opposition municipal councilor, won by 64 ballots ahead of Sylvine Thomassin (PS). In the process, the outgoing mayor had filed an appeal before the administrative court of Montreuil, criticizing a “stolen” election using “false proxies”.
Sylvine Thomassin also denounced the dissemination, the day before the second round, of a document truncated with an article from Le Parisien posted two days earlier. He mentioned two complaints against her and those around her, as well as the opening in February 2020 by the Bobigny public prosecutor’s office of a preliminary investigation for “illegal taking of interests, passive influence peddling, embezzlement of public funds, complicity and concealment of these offences”.
Arguments which had led the administrative court of Montreuil to cancel the results of the elections last February. Stephen Hervé had appealed this decision. This Thursday, the mayor of Bondy “takes note” of the opinion of the public rapporteur of the Council of State. “We made a note under advisement to respond to his arguments,” he said. There is still a slim chance. »
“I live this city, I breathe this city”
This note under advisement aims to “rebalance the facts in the mind of the judge”. “The arguments raised by the administrative court and by the rapporteur are not points of law but campaign facts”, he observes, referring to “the so-called leaflet that we did not issue” and “the 16 votes cut off because of irregularities on the lists of signatures in the first and second rounds”.
Sylvine Thomassin, she welcomes a recommendation “just” after “an obstacle course of fifteen and a half months”. She did not wish to attend the hearing this Thursday morning but her lawyer was present. “The rapporteur rejected all of Mr. Hervé’s arguments,” she says. She especially insisted on the article of the Parisian which was the subject of a massive diffusion to which I could not answer. »
In the event of new elections, the elected socialist confirms that she will stand as head of the list. “The Bondynois that I meet every day ask me for it,” she says. I live this city, I breathe this city. »
Stephen Hervé, too, says he is ready to return to the campaign. “If it is necessary to reorganize elections that the prefect will implement, I hope, quickly, we will return to the fight with enthusiasm and with a year of results already visible. »
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