The time for sanctions has arrived. The day after the announcement of his alliance with the LR candidate for the metropolis of Lyon, Gérard Collomb had his investiture withdrawn for the second round of the municipal elections by La République en Marche.
In a press release, the party created by Emmanuel Macron said "to denounce the decision of Gérard Collomb and Yann Cucherat to ally with Laurent Wauquiez, Etienne Blanc and François-Noël Buffet". The Party is careful to specify that anyone who would be tempted by such an alliance to increase their chances in the future election would de facto face the same sanctions.
A "red line"
Gérard Collomb, preceded by the green candidate in the first round on March 15, was in a delicate position. But the choice to ally with the right and those close to Laurent Wauquiez, virulent opponent of the President of the Republic until the European elections, caused a strong emotion in the ranks of the majority.
As of Thursday, the boss of La République en Marche Stanislas Guerini estimated that Gérard Collomb had "crossed a red line" by renouncing to run for president of the metropolis of Lyon in favor of François-Noël Buffet (LR). In exchange, the right-wing candidate for mayor Étienne Blanc will step aside behind Yann Cucherat, colt of Collomb invested by LREM. Since then, bitter words have multiplied.
In Paris, government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye evokes "a form of selfishness" of one who was nevertheless "one of the very first companions of the En Marche adventure".
"That today he chooses a right with which I do not share any value, that of Laurent Wauquiez, that deeply disappointed me," she said on RMC / BFMTV, with reference to the president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region. For his successor on Place Beauvau, the mayor of Lyon "loses himself". "Gérard Collomb lost the municipal elections in the first round" and today, "this political choice loses him in the political field", declared Christophe Castaner on RTL.
"Emmanuel Macron was also a transgressor"
Interviewed on Friday on LCI, Gérard Collomb defended his decision. He highlighted the ideological proximity that would bind the two men, ensuring that the LR fringe furthest to the metropolis deemed his new ally "too moderate". Gérard Collomb thus promises to "draw a line which continues the policy" which he has led in Lyon "for 20 years. An alliance with the Greens was impossible, he said, because it would have resulted in "a deep break."
Accused of having crossed a red line, Gérard Collomb did not fail to respond to Stanislas Guérini by recalling that in his time, Emmanuel Macron himself made the choice of breaking up. “Emmanuel Macron was also a transgressive in his own way, and I remember that when he resigned from the government […] there was a red line that was crossed. Compared to François Hollande, he was doing an act which was promising for the future but which also ended a story ”.
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Not stingy in criticism, Gérard Collomb believes that the policy carried by the President of the Republic does not keep the promises made during the 2017 presidential campaign. "What I liked about Emmanuel Macron is that he thought the future and finally we abandoned this global vision to focus on specific measures which the French sometimes did not see the meaning, "he said. End of the story.