Since the closing of candidacies for the second of the municipal elections, Tuesday, June 2, an observation returns in the mouth of all observers: "The majority leans to the right". The candidate invested or supported by La République en Marche (LREM) has in fact allied with his main opponent of the Republicans or labeled on the right in 76 of the 296 municipalities of 9,000 inhabitants concerned, according to figures sent to the Parisian by the party.
There are large, well-publicized cities (Strasbourg, Lyon, Bordeaux) but also other smaller ones, such as Tours, Bourges, La Baule or Aurillac. An alliance with the left has only been materialized in 33 places for the second round scheduled for June 28.
"It is better to lean to the right"
How justify the first concerned? In their mouths, an alliance with the right seems "natural" to them. By some aspects of the program, first of all. In Tours (Indre-et-Loire), the pretender LREM, Benoist Pierre, finds it quite logical to have rallied the councilor in place, Christophe Bouchet. The latter, former first deputy of a mayor Les Républicains, is now a member of the Radical Movement, allied with LREM at the national level. Which facilitated the agreement. “I embody renewal, while the municipal team in place brings a lot of skill and experience. It is very constructive and positive to join forces, ”he explains to us during a campaign campaign on a market with the former president of Olympique de Marseille.
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"It is better to lean to the right, because we associate ecology with financial austerity, and it is necessary to have the right economic tools to move forward," believes Christine Ibanez, LREM candidate in Cuers (Var) and former activist of MoDem. This school director, married to a business manager, has allied with one of the two candidates on the right, Yann Bizien. "He took over a good ecological part of my program", rejoices the one who obtained 11% of the votes on March 15th.
In Clermont-Ferrand (Puy-de-Dôme), Eric Faidy recognizes that the three projects, namely his own, that of the socialist mayor in place Olivier Bianchi and that of the candidate Les Républicains Jean-Pierre Brenas, were, of prime first, "not incompatible". What drove the candidate LREM, strong with his 15.5% of the votes, to finally get along with the right who collected more than 20%? “The will and the capacity to transform the city. For six years, I observed that the outgoing team did not have them, ”he tackles. The former engineer at Michelin, now allied with a dental surgeon, also wishes to bring "renewal" to the outgoing councilor, who comfortably came out on top in the first round (more than 38% of the votes).
Personal political sensitivity
"We are in a city in debt, so the priority should not be put on construction and large investments", believes for its part Catherine Amalric, member of the Radical Movement and supported by LREM in Aurillac (Cantal). Small picnic addressed to the outgoing mayor Pierre Mathonier, from the Left Radical Party, who promises in particular to bring out of the ground "a multi-activity hall (concerts, theater ...) with a capacity of 400 seats".
The personal political sensitivity of the candidates also plays a role. Thus Jean-Yves Gontier, former member of the Republicans where he had set up a "Juppé club" and "from the right" - in his own words, signed an agreement with the candidate "Divers droite" at La Baule-Escoublac (Loire -Atlantic). “We have strong common values, such as a sense of public service. We are also both from civil society and not from political professionals, ”he argues. When he heard it, he did not even approach his left opponent, Anne Boyé, "because she wanted to stay in the opposition and be able to express herself in this capacity".
Any rebels on the left list? "It was unacceptable"
What also comes up in the mouth of many of these candidates is the impossibility of allying with a plural left, which is not limited to its "moderate" part. In Tours, Benoist Pierre did not even argue with his opponent Emmanuel Denis, who leads the union list of the left leading in the first round with more than 35% of the vote. "He relies in particular on rebellious France, the Communists, the New Anti-Capitalist Party ... It was unacceptable for me. I come from the center left, and all prerequisite for an agreement was to give up its union with the extreme left, supports the candidate.
"Olivier Bianchi is engaged in alliances with the Communist Party and former slingers of the Socialist Party, it was not possible to agree," also judges Eric Faidy in Clermont-Ferrand. "It is unthinkable to ally with rebellious France, which is in head-on opposition to the government," supports MP Marie Guévenoux, LREM MP and president of the party's National Investiture Commission, joined by Le Parisien. The elected representative also explains the apparent imbalance by the political sensitivity of the lists elected in 2014 in the largest cities, since "two thirds of the mayors come from the right".
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At Aurillac, the political label was "not crippling" for Catherine Amalric, who herself had several candidates of communist sensibility on her list. "But we still had to agree on a program," she continues.
LREM withdraws support for eight candidates
In eight of these 76 municipalities, including Lyon, Clermont-Ferrand, Châtillon (Hauts-de-Seine), or Sannois (Val-d'Oise), such an alliance resulted in the majority candidate losing his nomination or the official support from LREM. The fault of the too “right-handed” profile of the joined candidate. "There is a fracturing of the right between that, humanist, of Juppe, with whom we can get along, and that more sovereignist, as in Laurent Wauquiez (president of the Auvergne Rhône Alpes region, Editor's note), with whom this n 'is not compatible,' we assume within the party.
Whether they are still labeled by the majority or not, will these numerous agreements with the right pay off? Answer on June 28, around 8 p.m.
VIDEO. Municipal on June 28: there was no political “consensus” on the issue