He’s the little thumb of history and he “does not want to be the stuffing turkey”. As part of the liquidation of the Public Interest Group (GIP) Grand Prix de France (1), the Sud Sainte Baume agglomeration community, hitherto discreet in this file, the claws released.
This president Jean-Paul Joseph on Monday held at a press conference at a press conference “denounce the drifts of a faulty political system”.
What fly has stung the mayor of Bandol, at the head of the little Agglo of West Var for four months?
The sum today claimed by the liquidator in Sud Sainte Baume, which amounts to around 750,000 euros, while the department had offered … 70,000 euros!
A sum he considers all the more unacceptable since, at the same time, it is claimed “only” 480,000 euros from the department and from the Toulon metropolis (2)!
“Bad habits taken over time”
“I can only see hostility towards Sud Sainte Baume and I absolutely find the pressures that are exerted on me to force the small agglomeration community, stuck between Marseille and Toulon, to pay for the big onessaid Jean-Paul Joseph said. I’m not afraid of words, these are thug methods. I ignore the precise reasons for this bellicose attitude towards the “little ones”, undoubtedly bad habits taken over time. ”
To explain his accusations, the president of Sud Sainte Baume returned exhaustively to the multiple episodes which led him to carry the case in the public square.
Starting with the “Informal proposal” Made by her predecessor Blandine Monier in October 2024 to pay the entire part of the debt agglomeration, namely 750,000 euros.
“She had made this proposal that had been suggested to her to unlock a complex situation and because she did not know that the Var department would offer 70,000 euros for Sud Sainte Baume and 480,000 euros for the department and the metropolis, he explained. Proposal made also because the liquidator had engaged in writing on the fact that there would be nothing else to settle afterwards. Now it was false. “
Then the machine has excited. Until last February when, during a videoconferencing with the liquidator and the department, “Mr. Ignatoff, representing the department and personal advisor to President Masson, invokes a“ decision ”of the GIP board of directors of November 22, 2024 with the request to pay 750,000 euros”.
Decision that Jean-Paul Joseph challenges, because “The board of directors cannot decide anything, it can only propose to the general meeting”he assures.
At the end of April, to the GIP board of directors, when he has just paid the 70,000 euros he considers that he should, Jean-Paul Joseph expresses his “Astonishment of having received four days before a new version of the upcoming presentation by the liquidator, where it is mentioned that he seized the prefect of the Var so that this [l]’obliges to pay [les 750.000 euros] By performing an automatic term and also seized the Toulon administrative court to have the deliberation of Sud Sainte Baume canceled the payment of the 70,000 euros “.
“The president of the southern region, Renaud Muselier, says he is stunned by my declaration”he assures.
The file of the Court of Auditors “is very heavy”
From now on, the president of Sud Sainte Baume announces that he will not stop there.
“I asked for an interview from the prefect with Ms. Monier to explain our position to him. There is no question of not paying, but of paying our share. We will have in a few weeks the final report of the Court of Auditors which is auditing the GIP. The file is very heavy, but I cannot reveal anything.”
Recalling the seizure of the public prosecutor-by the Department, the Metropolis TPM and the South Agglo Sainte Baume-which dates back to September 2023, Jean-Paul Joseph also plans to act at the judicial plan: “At first by requesting the public prosecutor to find out where the Judial or judicial education; In a second step by constituting us civil party if offenses are formed. “
1. This public interest group was created in 2017 to accommodate the Formula 1 Grand Prix of France on the Castellet circuit. Dissolved on March 1, 2024, the GIP continues its mission in the liquidation phase. To date, it remains just over 12 million euros in debts to be repaid.
2. Sud Sainte Baume represents 2.2% in the GIP, the department and the metropolis 14.8%.
