January 29, 2001. A light rain falls on Baillargues, a small town in Hérault located about thirty kilometers northeast of Montpellier. Around 9:45 a.m., a black sedan parks in front of 479, route de Nîmes, in front of the offices of the Center for Relocation and International Trade (CDCI). Two men get out, wearing gloves, their faces hidden by a black wool hood. Weapons in hand, they rush into the premises with a determined step, ordering a secretary to be quiet with an index finger placed in front of her mouth.
The two men went straight to the first floor, accounting department, and entered an office in which the boss of the company, Christian Poucet, was in the middle of a telephone conversation. Without saying a word, they shot him about fifteen times with a semi-automatic pistol. 9 millimeter Parabellum bullets hit the forty-year-old in the face, chest and lower abdomen. His assassins got back into their vehicle and fled. Despite the triggering of the Epervier plan by the police, they were neither arrested nor identified.
Who killed Christian Poucet? The mystery has lasted for two decades. It could finally have a resolution: as revealed by the local site Metropolitana year ago, the courts discreetly ordered the reopening of this case which, in the opinion of several experts, should never have been closed.
Punchy methods
The violent death of Christian Poucet in 2001 brought a life of conflict to a close. Before being a business leader, the man was above all the inflexible leader of the virulent Confederation for the Defense of European Tradesmen and Craftsmen (CDCAE). In line with the Poujadist movements, this union of traders and small bosses has as its leitmotif the denunciation of social and professional taxes. It demands the end of the monopoly of Social Security and the right for the liberal professions to freely choose their social insurance.
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Bailiff’s offices and ransacked pension funds, wild demonstrations, kidnappings… Since its creation in 1992, the CDCAE has distinguished itself by its hard-hitting methods, claimed by its boss. A fan of casinos, dogs, sports cars and firearms, Christian Poucet is afraid of nothing, and certainly not of justice. In 1995, he failed to run for president, due to a lack of sponsorship from elected officials. A year later, at the end of 1996, learning that an investigating judge was interested in his union and its accounts, he threatened him during a public meeting: “We know his address.” He was taken into custody on November 30. His members ransacked the city center of Montpellier to protest his arrest. During this time, facing the police, he repeated his threats against the investigating magistrate: “My men will skin him.”
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