Mystical scam in Agde: in the name of the father, the mayor and the feigned spirit

Cheating, bluffing, impostures and cover-ups... From Maradona to Retailleau, from Marie-Antoinette to Stanley Kubrick, all summer long, Libération has been shining with a thousand fakes. All episodes of our "100 % pure deception" series can be found here .

But what is going on in Agde, wonders the Béziers prosecutor on January 3, 2024. From the mayor of the Hérault town to the leaders of local businesses, have they all gone mad? The case the magistrate is revisiting in these first days of the year has, in any case, taken a particularly disturbing turn. The latest information he has received seems to almost tip the case into the paranormal: it involves a medium and healer who has allegedly "taken control of the town hall" and enjoys "real influence over the decisions of Mayor Gilles d'Ettore." The 55-year-old former LR MP, who has run the seaside resort for over twenty years, a former general intelligence officer, is being manipulated by a clairvoyant? The prosecutor rubs his eyes and goes back to the roots of the story.

Three months earlier, on October 25, 2023, the police officers at the Agde police station had also scrubbed theirs. Because that day, the person sitting across from them wasn't just anyone. And what she told them...