Having recently arrived at the Ministry of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau sees an old file resurface dating back to his participation in the famous programme Intervilles in 1997.
The case has long been known as the “Scandal from Intervilles“. But the facts, which date back to 1997, are coming to light these days, twenty-seven years later, but above all only a few days after the appointment to one of the most powerful ministries in France of a key player in this story: Bruno Retailleau. The new tenant of Beauvau was in fact part of the Puy du Fou team when it won a second consecutive victory in the famous TV game show in the summer of 1997 IntervillesA success marred a few weeks later by suspicions of cheating.
In September 1997, The Chained Duck then the broadcast Freeze Frame had denounced the cheating orchestrated with the help of one of the hosts of the game pitting two French cities against each other, and exceptionally the amusement park. The sequence highlighted by the media is that of the general knowledge quiz. While Jean-Pierre Foucault asks questions written on cards held by the famous host, Olivier Chiabodo, the latter seems to communicate the answer to the Puy du Fou team then questioned. One time his hand indicates the number 3, another time 2. Enough to allow Puy du Fou to reach the final.
The amusement park team at the time included a certain Bruno Retailleau, then a director for Puy du Fou. Today Minister of the Interior, Bruno Retailleau began his career alongside Philippe de Villiers, whom he had met when he was a volunteer rider in the Cinéscénie. In 2017, Olivier Chiabodo revealed in the columns of Parisian that “on the sets” he had “an earpiece” and “obeyed[t]”under the orders of Gérard Louvin, the former producer ofIntervilles at the origin of the cheating, according to him. “He was the one who asked me to favor the candidate from Puy du Fou,” he said, clearly naming the person concerned: “It was Bruno Retailleau.” For his part, the new Minister of the Interior has never denied the facts. He even laughed a lot on France Inter in October 2017 when the comedian Charline Vanhoenacker told him: “Still, compared to Balkany, Guéant, Woerth and all the cases, aren’t you a little ashamed, you, with your story of cheating at Intervilles“, relays Release.