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Town of Agde is dwelling to the biggest swinger group in Europe
The city of Agde on the Mediterranean coast could also be recognized for its lovely sandy seashores and year-round sunshine, nevertheless it additionally has a fame for wild intercourse events.
Town is dwelling to the biggest swinger group in Europe. Yearly, tens of 1000’s of {couples} from throughout Europe come to the town to vary companions.
However proper now, the town is reeling from a model new scandal, leaving the remainder of France shaking their heads in collective bewilderment and amusement.
It includes a neighborhood fortune teller and the city’s mayor, Gilles d’Ettore, a former secret service officer and police officer.
Each at the moment are in jail whereas legal investigations are underway. The fortune teller, Sophia Martinez, is accused of embezzling from the mayor, whereas he himself is accused of corruption for spending massive quantities of taxpayer cash on her.
Mrs. Martinez had a fame for having the ability to discuss to the useless. When the mayor requested her to place him in contact together with his deceased father, she succeeded. Throughout séances, her voice all of a sudden modified and took on the tone of the mayor’s father.
Each the mayor and the fortune teller are in jail whereas a judicial investigation is underway
It’s alleged that she has manipulated the mayor in individual and over the cellphone for the previous 4 years with exceptional ventriloquism abilities.
He acquired 1000’s of mysterious cellphone calls from “voices” of the useless, together with angels, a few of whom urged the mayor to assist the fortune teller.
And that is the place corruption comes into play.
The mayor is claimed to have paid for luxurious holidays for Ms. Martinez and her household, together with to Polynesia and Thailand, with public funds. It’s claimed that the ‘voices’ persuaded him to make use of a number of members of her household to work for the council and in addition renovate her home. Native corporations with connections to the mayor did the work at no cost, for worry of shedding future contracts with him.
With all the eye, the mayor’s lawyer, Jean Marc Darrigade, has become a minor movie star in a single day.
Invoice
Jean Marc Darrigade has described the story as loopy
“It is a loopy story,” he tells me at his workplace in close by Montpellier. “It is unimaginable as a result of you might have a person in politics, mayor and former MP who could be very clever. And also you uncover that such a person might be manipulated by a girl.”
“This can be a girl who got here into his life and mentioned I can discuss to your late father. She found a psychological weak spot in him and exploited it for private acquire. It took him a very long time to acknowledge that he had been defrauded,” Darrigade added.
However Ms. Martinez’s lawyer, Luc Abratkiewicz, has a unique view.
“She has admitted to betraying the mayor’s belief, however there is no such thing as a manipulation as a result of she has admitted what she did and different shoppers, together with docs and designers, mentioned she had mystical powers,” he mentioned .
“She revealed particulars about their lives that nobody else knew about.”
The attorneys deny it, however the locals say all of it comes right down to intercourse in a metropolis the place there may be already lots of it.
In a sunny cafe close to the city corridor, a buyer Jean-Max mentioned: “I just like the mayor, he has been good to me, he was fooled. Possibly he was in love together with her.”
One other native added with a chuckle: “For me, intercourse is the guts of the scandal. If there may be cash concerned, meaning intercourse can also be concerned.”
“They type of go collectively.”
The far proper has made important features on this a part of France in recent times. One of many mayor’s most outspoken critics is Fabienne Varesano, a fast-rising native politician from Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement Nationwide celebration. She has referred to as on the mayor to resign.
Fabienne Varesano has referred to as on the mayor to resign
“He might be beneficiant, in love with many various ladies, that is his private life. However utilizing taxpayer cash is a unique story,” she says.
“He made a idiot of our metropolis.”
A decide retains each the mayor and the fortune teller in custody to forestall attainable witness tampering. Ms. Martinez was moved to solitary confinement after she was attacked in her solely ladies’s jail wing, the place inmates accused her of witchcraft.
Chris Bockman is the writer of “Are You the Foie Gras Correspondent? One other Sluggish Information Day in Southwest France.”
