Bossy in France: The fortuneteller has become the undoing of the town chief

The city of Agde on France's Mediterranean coast, and even the neighboring tourist center of Cap d'Agde, already has a questionable reputation. The nudist area of ​​Cap d'Agde is home to 40,000 nature-loving tourists in high season, and nudity is mandatory here. The city is also the scene of many swingers parties; Couples from all over Europe indulge their desires here.

However, at the moment, Aged causes disbelief for other reasons; The two main protagonists are Mayor Gil Dettori, a former Gaullist member of the Republic, and the city's famous seer and healer, Sofía Martinez. Both are currently in custody and investigations are ongoing. The judiciary suspects that the mayor embezzled about 300,000 euros from the city treasury in order to pay Martinez and those around her. She is accused of fraud and manipulation.

the voice changed

The fortune teller claims that she can contact the deceased and that they will speak through her. About four years ago, the mayor met Sofia Martinez for the first time and asked her to have a relationship with his father in the afterlife. The exercise was supposed to be a success: suddenly the fortune teller spoke in a deep male voice – her father's voice.

The séances continued, and Dettori received numerous calls from his father and other dead people. Most often, the “voices” demanded that the mayor reward the medium, the fortuneteller, generously for her services. The city mayor was obedient, financing Martinez and her extended family's vacations, placing her husband in city administration and renovating her home. Local companies with ties to the mayor did this work for free, for fear of losing future contracts with him.

The events spread throughout the city, and the police became suspicious and tapped the heroes' phones for weeks, searching the offices and eventually arresting the two. During interrogation, the mayor claimed that he paid the fortuneteller with his own money, but she admitted that the calls from the afterlife were thanks to her ventriloquist skills. In doing so, she manipulated the mayor, sometimes in person, but preferably over the phone.

“Crazy story”

The mayor's lawyer, Jean-Marc Darrigad, told the BBC it was a “crazy story”. “It's unbelievable, you have a man in politics, a former mayor and deputy, very intelligent. And then you discover that such a man can be manipulated by a woman. (…) She found a weakness in him and exploited it to her advantage. “It took “a long time ago even before he was involved in it.”

“He made a mockery of our city,” says Fabienne Varsano, an ambitious local politician from the National Rally party, to which Marine Le Pen also belongs. She called on the mayor to resign. But for now, Dettori and Martinez remain in custody to prevent possible influence on witnesses. Martinez was placed in solitary confinement after she was accused of witchcraft and was attacked by inmates in the women's prison wing.