It is this Monday that the trial of the “Festival of Tiles” in Grenoble, this great popular festival initiated by the environmental team elected in 2014 as head of the city, must begin in front of the judicial court of Valence. The municipality supported 80,000 spectators in 2015 during the first edition. An edition whose organization had been entrusted to the “Fusées” association, as the following year in 2016. Contracts awarded without public tender as highlighted by the Regional Chamber of Auditors in a 2018 report.
This is what it is worth for the mayor of Grenoble, Éric Piolle, to present himself for two days as 6 other defendants. Among them are former leaders of the municipal administration as well as the association of suppliers as a legal person and one of its members. The ecological mayor and the “hierarchical chain” of the administration of the time are suspected of favoritism (“attack on freedom of access or equality of candidates in public procurement” according to the legal qualification); and the association for benefiting from it (“concealment”).
A technical debate for the defense
The “Rockets” association was allocated € 123,000 in 2015 and € 128,000 in 2016 for the organization of this event. The mayor of Grenoble was heard in police custody on 1 June 2021 at the premises of the PJ in Valence, where the investigation had been transferred – investigation led by the Valence prosecutor’s office. Éric Piolle defends himself from accusations of favoritism and talks about a technical debate on the rules for awarding public contracts. For him these were artistic performances which therefore did not have to go through calls for tenders. “In this case it is not about personal enrichment, points out his lawyer Thomas Fourrey: there is no backlash, there is no embezzlement. It is only a question of whether the organization of the integrated event in the Fête des Tuiles should be the subject of a public market, of a tender “. Furthermore, the mayor defends himself from any proximity to the association and its director.
Alain Carignon’s group wants to become a civil party
The argument of the artistic nature of the shows is contested by Thierry Aldeguer, lawyer of the opposition group to the Grenoble city council led by the former mayor Alain Carignon: “In order for it to work according to jurisprudence, it is necessary to establish that only the association of your choice has been able to produce this event. But it is not so and the regional Chamber of Auditors says so”. The lawyer wants to be a civil party in the trial, on behalf of the opposition group. The City itself has filed a civil suit … on the proposal of a deputy mayor. “Who will objectively hear the position of the Municipality?” question the lawyer to justify his request. Only the court will be able to say whether this civil claim is admissible or not.
The trial, originally scheduled for half a day in March, was finally postponed to Monday, and its duration was extended to two days at the request of lawyers. Éric Piolle and the other defendants theoretically risk up to two years of imprisonment and a fine of 30 thousand euros, as well as additional sanctions such as a ban on exercising a public function.
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