Formula 1: Sud Sainte Baume denounces "thug methods"

He is the little guy in the story and he "doesn't want to be the fall guy" . As part of the liquidation of the Public Interest Group (GIP) Grand Prix de France (1), the Sud Sainte Baume urban community, which has been discreet in this matter until now, is showing its claws.

This Monday, its president Jean-Paul Joseph held a press conference to "denounce the excesses of a failing political system" .

What has got into the mayor of Bandol, who has been at the head of the small urban area in western Var for four months?

The amount now claimed by the liquidator from Sud Sainte Baume, which amounts to approximately 750,000 euros, while the Department had offered... 70,000 euros!

A sum that he considers all the more unacceptable since, at the same time, "only" 480,000 euros are being claimed from the Department and the Toulon Metropolitan Area (2)!

"Bad habits acquired over time"

"I can only observe hostility towards Sud Sainte Baume and I find the pressure being put on me to force the small urban community, stuck between Marseille and Toulon, to pay for the big players absolutely unacceptable ," declared Jean-Paul Joseph. "I'm not afraid of words, these are the methods of thugs. I don't know the precise motives for this belligerent attitude towards the 'little players', no doubt bad habits acquired over time."

To clarify his accusations, the president of Sud Sainte Baume exhaustively reviewed the multiple episodes that led him to bring the matter to the public.

Starting with the "informal proposal" made by her predecessor Blandine Monier in October 2024 to pay the entire agglomeration's share of the debt, namely 750,000 euros.

"She had made this proposal, which had been suggested to her, to unblock a complex situation and because she was unaware that the Var Department would offer 70,000 euros for Sud Sainte Baume and 480,000 euros for the Department and the Metropolis, " he explained. " This proposal was also made because the liquidator had committed in writing that there would be nothing else to settle afterward. But this was false."

Then the machine went into overdrive. Until last February, when, during a videoconference with the liquidator and the Department, "Mr. Ignatoff, representing the Department and personal advisor to President Masson, invoked a "decision" of the GIP board of directors of November 22, 2024, with the request to pay 750,000 euros."

A decision that Jean-Paul Joseph contests, because "the board of directors cannot decide anything, it can only propose to the general meeting," he assures.

At the end of April, at the GIP board meeting, having just paid the 70,000 euros he believes he owes, Jean-Paul Joseph expressed his "surprise at having received four days before a new version of the upcoming presentation by the liquidator, where it is mentioned that he has contacted the prefect of Var so that the latter forces him to pay [the 750,000 euros] by making an ex officio mandate and also contacted the administrative court of Toulon to have the decision of Sud Sainte Baume voting to pay the 70,000 euros annulled."

"The president of the South Region, Renaud Muselier, says he is stunned by my statement," he assures.

The Court of Auditors' file "is very heavy"

Now, the president of Sud Sainte Baume announces that he will not stop there.

"I requested an interview with the prefect and Ms. Monier to explain our position. It's not a question of not paying, but of paying our share. In a few weeks, we will have the final report from the Court of Auditors, which is currently auditing the GIP. The file is very complex, but I can't reveal anything."

Recalling the referral to the public prosecutor – by the Department, the TPM Metropolis and the Sud Sainte Baume agglomeration – which dates back to September 2023, Jean-Paul Joseph also intends to take legal action: "Firstly by asking the public prosecutor to find out the status of the judicial investigation or judicial inquiry; secondly by constituting ourselves as a civil party if any offences are established."

1. This Public Interest Group was created in 2017 to host the Formula 1 French Grand Prix at the Castellet circuit. Dissolved on March 1, 2024, the GIP continues its mission in the liquidation phase. To date, just over €12 million in debt remains to be repaid.

2. Sud Sainte Baume represents 2.2% in the GIP, the Department and the Metropolis 14.8%.