PLR & Le Centre incest: deputy public safety chief, mayor, prosecutor & Canton Valais minister all same party
Conflict of Interest disclaimer: the author has resided in Switzerland, he has taken the Swiss citizenship oath and, from time to time, been party to legal and contractual relationships involving parties referenced in the JuristGate reports. The nature of these relationships is often declared within the research reports although we can't rule out the possibility some relationships or influences have not been explicitly itemized within every report.
In the first JuristGate report about a cover-up after the tragic fire at Le Constellation, Crans-Montana, we noted that two of the four key officials present at the media briefing, the public safety minister ( Stéphane Ganzer) and the chief prosecutor for Canton Valais ( Béatrice Pilloud) are both members of the same political party, that is, the Liberal Radical Party (PLR).
In fact, looking at the list of employees in the commune, we can find another even more disturbing connection to the PLR.
The mayor of the Crans-Montana municipal council is Nicolas Féraud. He is a member of the PLR, along with one other council member, Sébastien Rey.
After the fire, the council hid the page about their public safety team. Fortunately, one snapshot was captured by the Wayback Machine.
The people in the photo are Bryan Frily, Stecy Florey, Christophe Balet, the head of the public safety team, who is responsible for the building safety inspections, Benjamin Charpiot, the deputy head of the public safety team and Baptiste Cotter.
Searching the history of all team members, we quickly found that Benjamin Charpiot, the deputy head of public safety and inspections, was also a previous election candidate for the the Liberal Radical Party (PLR).
Here is a news report from 2016 where they interview Charpiot about his candidacy with the PLR.
Here is a link to the PLR page with his candidacy.
Le Centre (The Center party) is at it too
If there is a conflict of interest, surely the prosecutor, Béatrice Pilloud can simply step aside and allow her deputy to handle the investigation?
Pilloud's deputy is Catherine Seppey from another political party, Le Centre (The Center).
In the municipal council of Crans-Montana, three out of seven elected council members are also members of the same party as the deputy prosecutor. François Berclaz, Marielle Clivaz and Patrick Clivaz.
Of those three, Patrick Clivaz is also the councilor responsible for public safety.
Therefore, the deputy prosecutor also has a conflict of interest with respect to members of the municipal council.
Risks of nepotism and "copinage"
The Swiss media and social media have been quick to warn about the risk of "copinage". Everybody in Switzerland knows what its like to live in a little village like this.
Notice how five members of the municipal council share two surnames, Clivaz (3) and Rey (2).
Better for prosecutors to step aside early
Other countries have now assigned their own prosecutors to supervise the investigation. In Paris, Rome and Brussels, senior prosecutors have been assigned to open their own cases and interview suspects and witnesses on their own territory.
European leaders have expressed strong support for Switzerland in recent days. But just in case that support is misplaced, they are going to make sure their own prosecutors are watching every step very carefully.
To save face, it would be better for the Canton Valais officials to admit these conflicts of interest are serious and step aside now rather than waiting for a situation where they lose public support.
Remember the case of the greffier Mathieu Parreaux in the same canton who was accepting payments from legal protection insurance clients at the same time he was working inside the tribunal as a greffier.
Please see the rest of the JuristGate reports.
Conflict of Interest disclaimer: the author has resided in Switzerland, he has taken the Swiss citizenship oath and, from time to time, been party to legal and contractual relationships involving parties referenced in the JuristGate reports. The nature of these relationships is often declared within the research reports although we can't rule out the possibility some relationships or influences have not been explicitly itemized within every report.