Gilles d'Ettore affair: who is this former police officer who has reigned over the town of Agde for almost 25 years ?
Gilles D'Ettore, in 2018, in front of “his” town hall which he has occupied since 2001. Midi Libre – PIERRE SALIBA
The mayor of the Agathois city has been elected since 2001. An almost historic longevity that he owes to the closeness he cultivates with his constituents and a certain political skill. But his mandates were also marked by controversies.
He has reigned over Agde for 23 years. Elected for the first time in 2001 at the age of 33, Le Républicain Gilles d’Ettore could even go down in the history of the seaside resort where this grandson of’ Italian immigrant has seen the light of day, if he returns in 2026 for a fifth term. Until then, only the industrialist Jacques Coste-Forêt held the mayor's chair longer than him, 25 years, between 1853 and 1878.
Born in Agde, son of a deputy mayor
Police inspector in general intelligence in Lyon from 1992 to 2000 after studying law in Montpellier, Gilles d'Ettore did not fall into politics by chance. His father, Raymond, was deputy to another emblematic mayor, Pierre Leroy-Beaulieu. It was the latter who asked the young D’Ettore, to challenge in his place the outgoing, the socialist Régis Passerieux in 2001. Four years after the death of the father figure, he saw it as a sign. With reason. The policeman knocks down his opponent for 120 votes.
Since then, every election has been a formality, or almost. In 2008, the jouster Fabrice Mur, his main opponent until 2020, almost knocked him out of his role as mayor. And for good reason, then a UMP deputy since 2007, when the accumulation of mandates was only a debate, Gilles d’Ettore shares his daily life between Paris and Agde, despite an active not very intense parliamentary. His voters make him feel the wind of the ball.
"Around ten people every day"
The mayor seems to have learned his lesson. When the Holland wave sends him back to the shores of the Mediterranean, he strives to cultivate the image of an elected official close to his constituents. In 2020, on the eve of the second round of municipal elections, he ensured that Midi Libre received around ten people every day, not counting the ones I meet in the street or to whom I respond on the phone". One of his relatives confirmed: "He always takes everyone, whatever the reason for the call". His Agathois roots also work for him. "I'm not sure that being born and raised here is any more important than in the past. But it is certain that it adds authenticity, at a time when citizens trust politicians less and less. Being from here helps,” he told us again in 2020.
Others also put forward its results, recalling that the city has continued to develop, going from 20,000 to 27,000 inhabitants in twenty years… without this affecting the warm welcome of the 300,000 tourists in summer. Gilles D'Ettore supported the modernization of his city, like the ambitious congress center project which was accompanied by a casino and a casino. rsquo;a vast real estate program. And to those who would criticize him for abandoning the historic heart of old Agde in favor of the dapper Cap-d’Agde, the councilor replied, during his last greeting ceremony which brought together 1 200 Agathois, with the enormous investments to come for the Promenade, the Laurens castle, the renovation of housing, the traders…
"He is 15 points ahead each time before the opening of the polling stations"
This is how it is in this city which always seems more seduced by the National Rally during the national elections (67.4% for Marine Le Pen in the second round of the presidential 2022), Gilles D'Ettore manages to stifle any local desire of the RN (15 % in the last municipal election). "There are others reasons", intervenes an elected official from the region who prefers to remain anonymous."Gilles, for example, managed to lock in the gypsy community, which is very large in the city, by giving them food. He also knows how to cultivate his popularity in nursing homes. In short, even before the polling stations opened, he was already 15 points ahead. Add to that an opposition that is zero and a city with an electorate of very conservative seniors. On the other hand, outside his commune, it’s harder, we saw it in the 2012 legislative elections where he obtained the lowest score of all the leavers" . The person concerned hardly cares about it, now affirming his only interest in his city. And the Hérault Méditerranée Agglomeration, which he has chaired since its creation in 2003. He has also served as president of a number of organizations: Scot, Béziers airport, Thau basin hospitals, etc. .
An SRPJ investigation, a classification without further action
For this same witness, however, there is also the dark side, which has surfaced with controversies revealed by the opposition. The jobs of his wife, then his new partner, for real estate developers who have a storefront in Agde. His ex-wife, again, that he would have "imposed" on the LR lists of the regional then the senatorial ones, "more out of personal interest than politics", we are told. Above all, suspicions of irregularities in the award of public contracts in the convention center project. But nothing made Gilles D'Ettore tremble, not even this last affair which triggered an investigation with a search of the town hall by the financial section of the SRPJ of Montpellier, for s rsquo;finish a year later with no action being taken, "in the absence of any infraction", concluded the prosecutor.
But now this new affair begins. In the political world, where off is necessarily required, opinions are divided. "That doesn't surprise me", dare cautiously a former traveling companion, before unfolding a whole series "of’clues" and the context of ;a city where different circles of influence intersect. Another plays surprised and sweeps away: "Since 1942, we have been accustomed to denunciations, to defamations. Something in this style must have happened". The future will tell. For the moment, that of Gilles D'Ettore is written in dotted lines, even though nothing seemed to stand in his way on the road to a fifth mandate. Politically in any case.
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