"Under Pétain, he would have done the same thing": environmentalist Jean-Christophe Picard files complaint against Christian Estrosi, mayor of Nice

" We are not here to moan, but to say that politics is serious," says Juliette Chesnel le Roux, leader of the Green opposition in the City of Nice and the Metropolis. " Our role is to alert the prosecutor via Article 40 of the Code of Criminal Procedure [1] when we see something that seems criminal to us. It is not a right, it is a duty," adds the municipal councilor.

She insists: " The elected officials who apply this legal obligation are therefore not informers, collaborators or anti-Semites."

"Pétain, Vichy": Picard files complaint against Estrosi

If this clarification, in these terms, seemed necessary for the opposition to Christian Estrosi, it is because "enough is enough", says Jean-Christophe Picard.

The elected official, former president of Anticor, the association fighting corruption in politics, has just filed a complaint for defamation and public insults against the mayor Horizons of Nice for comments dating back to May 23, 2025. "In matters of defamation, the statute of limitations is 3 months, I waited until the last moment, to give Christian Estrosi the opportunity to apologize. I did not have one," says Jean-Christophe Picard.

That day, at the municipal council meeting, the mayor - who had to withdraw for a vote - had made fun of the numerous articles 40 tabled by his green opposition.

" I know that Mr. Picard is taking the binoculars to know how far I will go out and how far from the hemicycle I will stand, before making an Article 40 report... Under Pétain, he would have done the same thing, since he always said: 'I respect the laws whatever the regime.' So, bring me a Vichy, please, Mr. Usher ," Estrosi had said in the middle of the session.

" If I understand these serious and astonishing accusations correctly, I would have been a collaborator, an informer, that is to say, a person who denounces others for despicable reasons and I would have been capable of denouncing the Jews ," explains the opposition representative.

Functional protection in question

The Greens hesitated to file this complaint, they swear, because of the cost of functional protection for taxpayers, and therefore for the people of Nice. This is what allows an elected official to have the community pay the legal fees.

" But I have come to the conclusion that Mr. Estrosi will not be able to use functional protection in this case because the comments made result from a personal fault that cannot be separated from the exercise of his functions ," explains the elected official, who considers himself defamed. " If he uses it, I announce that I will oppose it by contacting the prefect and the prosecutor ," he continues.

The opposition has tabled around twenty Article 40s since the start of this mandate in 2020. Many have led to the opening of investigations: the Saint-Laurent-du-Var port affair, the Vauban car park, the Orlinski affair, the Joan of Arc statue, the Nice Climate Summit and the GIP Grand Prix de France, etc.

" And because we apply Article 40, we are the target of several gagging procedures intended to silence us ," concludes Fabrice Decoupigny.

1. Any constituted authority, any public officer or civil servant who, in the exercise of his functions, acquires knowledge of a crime or an offence is required to notify the prosecutor without delay.