The Death Of Jean Germain

June 9, 2015

     The name of Jean Germain may not mean anything to you, but if you lived in the ancient city of Tours, in the Loire Valley, you knew him as your Mayor.  Jean Germain was a serious man --he was  Mayor of Tours for nineteen years, a Senator in the Assemblee Nationale, and a Chevalier of the Legion d'Honneur.  The latter distinction is given to a politician only after 20 years of public service and a demonstration of his "eminent merits" to be so recognized.

     A part of the fabric of Tourangeau life (citizens of Tours are called Tourangeaux if they are men, and Tourangelles if they are women), he was highly regarded.  Yet on Tuesday, April 7, 2015, he took his own life, turning on the engine of his car, parked in its garage in the house he lived.  He was 67 years old and was about to be called to testify in a political corruption trial.  There was a suicide note in the car, which spoke of the injustice and dishonor which drove him to kill himself:

      «Des indications me laissent penser que, alors que les faits n’ont pas eu lieu, le ministère public va requérir à mon encontre pour des raisons plutôt politiques. C’est insupportable. Autant, je peux reconnaître des erreurs, des manques de discernement. Autant, il m’est impossible d’accepter sans broncher cette forfaiture, rendue possible par les actions de Madame Han et les mensonges peureux de Monsieur Lemarchand. Leur conscience les poursuivra.

     Je sais le mal que je vais faire, la peine que je vais diffuser à ceux qui m’aiment. Mais on ne peut laisser la chasse systématique aux politiques se dérouler "normalement", quotidiennement. Il est des êtres, j’en suis sûr, pour lesquels l’injustice et le déshonneur sont insupportables. Soyez sûrs que je n’ai jamais détourné un centime, que je ne me suis pas enrichi, que j’ai toujours œuvré pour ce que je pensais être le bonheur des Tourangeaux. Je laisse ce courrier à mes proches qui, je l’espère, pourront comme ça comprendre».

        Below is my translation of the note:

       The signs lead me to believe that since the facts have not been taken into consideration, the prosecution will pursue me for largely political reasons.  This is unbearable.  I recognize I made errors, that I lacked discernment.  Similarly, it is impossible for me to accept without flinching that abuse of authority, made possible by the actions of Madame Han and the frightening lies of Mr. Lemarchand.  Their consciences will pursue them.

        I know the harm that I am doing, the pain that I will cause those who love me.  But one cannot let this systematic persecution unfold "normally", day to day.  There are people for whom injustice and dishonor are unbearable.  Be sure that I never embezzled a cent, that I did not enrich myself, that I always worked for what I thought was the happiness of the people of Tours.  I leave this letter to those close to me, whom, I hope, will be able in this way, to understand.

     What brought about Jean Germain's death?  Opinions are divided, but the facts are not too complicated: within the Mayor's jurisdiction and under the direction of the Tourist Office (of which Monsieur Lemarchand was director), an office of Franco-Chinese Affairs was created.  The head of the office was Lise Han, an enterprising woman born in Taiwan.

      Lise Han persuaded Tours' Mayor and the director of the Tourist Office that if would be a great idea if Tours could increase the scope of its Chinese tourism by offering to facilitate "commitment ceremonies" for married Chinese couples who would like to re-enact their vows.  The facilitation involved the Mayor, Jean Germain, reading out the words of the re-commitment of the couples to their marriages in French, then posing for a photograph with the couples, dressed as extravagantly as if they were being married again.  The ceremony involved two hundred couples and was filmed and photographed.

       What Lise Han did not tell City Hall was that as well as working for Tours, she also worked for the company who was selling the package "re-committment" trips.  This came to light and Lise Han was asked to resign from the company, which she ostensibly did. However, she continued to play a behind-the-scenes role which permitted the company to pocket moneys that were arguably public.  

        The evidence was sufficient for the public prosecutor to bring a case for embezzlement of public funds against Lise Han and several others.  Jean Germain, as the Mayor, was necessarily implicated.  There is some question as to whether the Mayor was not naive in failing to question how Tours became such a desirable place for Chinese couples to "re-commit" en masse on one day.  Then again, in France, sometimes relationships work to the disadvantage of judgment.  Copinage --the practice of getting something through contacts-- is embedded in French life.  Jean Germain might not have been corrupt, but he may have gotten caught in the web of others, particularly that of Lise Han.

         Ms. Han is awaiting trial for embezzlement of public funds.  She has said that she and Jean Germain were lovers.  Yet there are no love letters, no tell-tale e-mails, or phone messages.   Many see Han's claim as an attempt by her to spread the blame for the "Chinese Marriages" to the former Mayor, and in so doing, receive a shorter sentence when she is almost certainly found guilty of breaching the public trust and embezzling public funds.

         Jean Germain looks, in all the photos available, as though he was genuinely happy to be the Mayor of Tours.  Next year would have been his twentieth as Mayor.  There would probably have been a big celebration, at which this public man would have been celebrated and honored as he would have wished, among the people he worked for.  Some people say he killed himself because he was afraid of what would be revealed about his private life in the course of the trial.  Others believe what he wrote in the note he left in his car: that death was preferable to dishonor.