Convicted for possessing child pornography, the mayor of Sassetot-le-Mauconduit is being forced out

Pressure is mounting on Éric Scarano. Nearly 200 people gathered on Saturday, August 29, in front of the town hall of Sassetot-le-Mauconduit, in Seine-Maritime, to demand the elected official's resignation. He had been convicted two days earlier for possessing and distributing child pornography.

Mayor of this town of approximately 1,000 inhabitants since 2008, Éric Scarano received an 18-month suspended sentence with three years of probation. The Le Havre criminal court also banned him for ten years from engaging in any professional or volunteer activity involving contact with minors. His name must also be entered into the automated judicial file of perpetrators of sexual or violent offenses.

Arrested and taken into custody on July 1st, the elected official was suspended from his position as fourth vice-president of the Fécamp urban community. However, this measure did not automatically terminate his municipal mandate, which he retains for the time being.

The city council is now unanimously against the mayor.

The protest is no longer limited to residents. The entire town council has demanded Éric Scarano's resignation, placing the mayor in a politically untenable position. In a small town, where close ties between elected officials and the population strongly shape local life, his continued presence now undermines the very functioning of the municipality.

Present at the gathering, Alain Bazille, departmental councillor for the canton of Fécamp and vice-president of the Seine-Maritime department, stated that he had spoken with the mayor's family. According to him, they had assured him that Éric Scarano was preparing to relinquish all of his local mandates. However, no official resignation had yet been announced.

The conviction also sparked a national reaction. Sarah El Haïry, High Commissioner for Children, denounced the act as an "abjection," refusing any "excuse" or "trivialization," before implicitly calling on the elected official to resign. Between the mobilization of residents, the unanimous support of the municipal council, and the political condemnations, Éric Scarano's continued leadership of Sassetot-le-Mauconduit now appears increasingly unlikely.