They have all been mayors or deputies in a large city in Ile-de-France since the 1990s or even before. However, Laurent Cathala in Créteil, Maud Tallet in Champs-sur-Marne, Franck Marlin in Etampes, François Pupponi in Sarcelles and Jacques Myard in Maisons-Laffitte were not re-elected by their constituents in the first round of the municipal elections, on 15 March...
Laurent Cathala has been holding Créteil since ... 1977
He adjusts his jacket, checks his smartphone, and finishes his cigarette. A witness screen? "No, otherwise we tend to stop looking at the camera," he replies. Laurent Cathala, installed in his garden reminiscent of his native south, with olive trees and birdsong for decoration, realized this Friday June 19 in the evening the first live Facebook of his long career, he who was elected mayor for the first time in 1977 , even before the birth of Emmanuel Macron.
But at 74, and for an 8th municipal campaign after 43 years in power, whatever the tool: the mayor PS of Créteil knows how to do it. Questioned on cycle paths, noise pollution, cleanliness ... he continues for 1 hour 25 minutes.
Laurent Cathala says it himself, with this new "unprecedented" campaign, because of the coronavirus, he will have "known everything". Lively, difficult campaigns, like in the face of Michel Guillou, former president of the University of Créteil in 1983. At the time, the young mayor was not yet seated enough in the town that had been rounded up seven years earlier by General Billotte, friend of General de Gaulle. But also, of the most serene. Like these last two polls, where he no longer even needs to put his name on the posters. "Who else besides him?" We only know him, we grew up with him, ”said the thirty-something before the first round.
So not so simple to shake the one that some call "the emperor", reigning over the city-prefecture of Val-de-Marne, for 43 years. A record for a town with more than 90,000 inhabitants. Henri Plagnol, before being minister, tried it with others in 1995, before returning to Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, one of the bastions of the right.
After already two attempts, his opponent, Thierry Hebbrecht (LR) "does not let go". "Créteil needs a new lease of life," repeats the business manager tirelessly, grudging against the absence of municipal police.
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But this wear did not weigh in the first round. Laurent Cathala came far ahead with 45.45% of the vote. "There is never a boulevard," recalls, cautiously, the former Secretary of State for François Mitterrand. Especially hoping for "the greatest possible participation".
In Champs-sur-Marne, the communist Maud Tallet resists changes
In place since 1994, Maud Tallet, 69, the communist mayor of Champs-sur-Marne (Seine-Et-Marne), obtained 46.5% of the votes in the first round with his list on the left and should win the second for begin his fifth term. Since 2001, she had always been elected to the right in the first round. This time the game has changed. It was to face four candidates, three of which remain in view of June 28.
By embarking on this new campaign, last October, Maud Tallet said he was determined to see "his" files succeed. "Champs-sur-Marne is at a new crossroads", she still confirms today. Criticized for the absence of video surveillance or municipal police by her opponents, she explains her score by "a certain credibility".
It has never ceased to stand up against the disengagement of the State and the decrease in endowments. According to her, the newcomers to the city refer, to vote, "to the quality of municipal services" and "proximity to elected officials".
At the head of the Champs to come list, Julie Gobert (PS), her former assistant and departmental councilor who registered 18.15% of the votes in the first round, has another analysis. “Many mayors in our city immediately received the trust of voters. After 26 years in office, she has little to offer, ”she retorts.
Franck Marlin, a quick return trip to the Assembly before taking over Etampes?
If he wins the majority of votes next Sunday, Franck Marlin (LR), 55, will begin his fifth term as mayor of Etampes (Essonne). His first election dates back to 1995, when the candidate was just thirty years old. Year after year, the young mayor has made this small town in Essonne his laboratory.
Until 2014, where he won 71.93% of the vote, Franck Marlin was re-elected hands down. But in 2017, the law on the non-cumulation of mandates obliges him to choose between his functions as mayor or those of deputy. He opts for the second option. This time, in case of victory, the former mayor ensures that he will give up his seat in the National Assembly to devote himself "fully to the Etampois": "I will do it, I have enrolled him in my profession of faith", he repeats over and over.
At Etampes, Franck Marlin does not leave indifferent: "We know him well, he is the best exclaimed, last February, a pensioner who thought he would be elected with at least 70% of the votes."
But this time, closely followed by the municipal councilor of opposition Mathieu Hillaire (LFI), credited with 27.44% of the votes in the first round, and by the candidate invested by LREM Clotilde Douard (23.69%), Franck Marlin must pass by a second round.
“The Etampois await a change, insists Amadou, 37, who supports Mathieu Hillaire. When he was mayor, he distinguished himself by his absence from municipal councils. Then he made the choice to leave when he was re-elected deputy ... He returns today but it's still the same. "
In the first round last March, the election escaped him by 59 votes. But with 48.66% of the vote, it acts as a favorite.
In Sarcelles, the end of the Pupponi era?
Twenty five years. It is twenty-five years since the deputy (DVG) François Pupponi did not lose a ballot, in Sarcelles (Val-d'Oise). The first victory was in 1995, as assistant to Dominique Strauss-Kahn, before he sat down in the mayor's chair to take over, two years later.
Twenty years of reign come. In 2001, 2008, and 2014, François Pupponi was re-elected, without problem, with each time around 60% of the votes in the first round. Can 2020 be synonymous with the end of an era for this city of 60,000 inhabitants? "If I lose, that the locals no longer trust me, I would draw the consequences", assures the deputy.
For the first time, he is put in difficulty by his successor and former assistant, Patrick Haddad, outgoing mayor (PS), who came out on top in the first round (39%). To avoid defeat, he regained control of the list led by his parliamentary attaché François-Xavier Valentin in the first round, placing himself at the top of the list for the second round.
"If I am elected, I will resign from the National Assembly," he says. I did not take two decades to rebuild this city, so that the current mayor breaks everything. I love this city, I love its people, I am passionate. I can't let it go. "
Patrick Haddad denounces a “strategy of despair”: “It is an endless drift, with authoritarian and autocratic methods. Only voters can end it, I think the time is right. "
At Maisons-Laffitte, a delicate equation for Jacques Myard
At Maisons-Laffitte (Yvelines), Jacques Myard (LR) came out on top in the first round but probably did not expect to be credited with such a low score (35.11%), he who had won as soon the first evening in 2014.
An incongruity in the sector when several of his colleagues from the surrounding area passed hands down from March 15 (Pierre Fond in Sartrouville, Arnaud Péricard in Saint-Germain-en-Laye, Eric Dumoulin in Chatou, Laurence Bernard in Pecq ... ).
At the time of attacking this second round, the thundering and authoritarian elected, whose image is inevitably linked to that of the city since 1989, finds itself in an unfavorable configuration. Its three main challengers Janick Géhin (DVD), Anne Lavagne (MoDem) and Charles Givadinovitch (DVD) have merged, notably with the consent of LREM which supported Anne Lavagne.
Even if they agree without problem that "no one owns their votes", they combined together more than 44% of the votes cast in the first round. "This is a historic opportunity to make a new start and to change governance at Maisons-Laffitte," says Janick Géhin, head of this new list, although she came in third position on March 15.
"After saying worse than hanging about each other, they join in a little trick, judge Jacques Myard. Their alliance and this choice of head of the list distorted the results of the first round. The inhabitants will not be fooled by these arrangements and I approach this June 28 election with confidence and serenity. "
The distribution of votes will undoubtedly be very different for this second round, especially since the two other candidates in the running, Nicolas Ljubenovic (DVG) and Amélie Thérond-Keraudren (DVD), could either pull out of the game, or suffer from 'a useful vote for Jacqes Myard or Janick Géhin.
