The Minister of the Interior and mayor of Tourcoing (North), Gérald Darmanin, got married this Saturday in the privacy of the town hall of his city, the resignation of his mandate as mayor to intervene in the wake.
“The wedding took place in privacy. It is not an exercise in communication. Like any public figure, (Gérald Darmanin) also has the right to his private life, to his intimacy,” said one of the his assistants, Eric Denoeud.
Shortly after the ceremony, Gérald Darmanin declared on Facebook that he “wished” his marriage “to be as intimate as possible in order to keep a part of the secret garden necessary for each man and each woman”, saying he was “touched” by “the very many testimonies of affection of Tourquennois “.
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The minister’s entourage had indicated on Monday that Gerald Darmanin would submit his letter of resignation after the celebration of his marriage, in second marriage, in town hall.
On Saturday, journalists and residents of the city waited in vain behind the barriers set up around the square of the town hall, in the presence of many police officers: they saw only the relatives of the bride and groom enter and leave, themselves. remained invisible.
A minister cannot lead a local executive
Gérald Darmanin, 37, is the target of a rape complaint. His appointment at the beginning of July at the Ministry of the Interior aroused the anger of feminists. Reelected with 60.9% of the vote in the first round of municipal elections on March 15, against a background of record abstention, he indicated at the end of July that the future mayor of Tourcoing would be known “at the end of August”, after having initially expressed the wish to ‘an appointment “at the end of July”.
According to his cabinet, this postponement of one month was due to “meetings canceled twice” because of “emergencies” related to the news. According to the case law established by Lionel Jospin in 1997, a minister cannot lead a local executive. Of course, this is an unwritten rule – which has suffered exceptions (Le Drian, Sarkozy …) – but the former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe had sanctified it in September 2019.
Gérald Darmanin had again girded the tricolor scarf on May 23, finding a seat occupied between March 2014, when the young elected then stamped UMP had delighted the city to the PS, and September 2017. When he entered the government in 2017, the minister , now LREM, had waited four months before giving up his chair to a faithful and becoming first assistant.
“If I am at the top of the list, it is to be mayor” of Tourcoing, however, he declared at the end of January in La Voix du Nord.
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