"Good luck, get ready to go to bed late!" This advice from a local political official will not surprise anyone. In Marseille, where we already thought we had seen everything, the situation has never been so confused on the eve of the municipal meeting which is to proceed to the election of the successor of Jean-Claude Gaudin to the central town hall. In question, an arithmetic of the seats distributed between the different groups or parties which allows all hypotheses, without ensuring any.
It is only this Saturday that we hope to see untie this Gordian knot. Recall that at the end of the second round of municipal elections, the distribution of seats on the municipal council - a legacy of learned sections of sectors formerly carried out by Gaston Defferre then Charles Pasqua - is as follows: 42 for Le Printemps marseillais (the list on the left led by Michèle Rubirola), 39 for the LR right, 3 for the dissident LR Bruno Gilles, 8 for the ex-socialist Samia Ghali and 9 for the National Rally (RN).
On the right, after Martine Vassal's withdrawal on Thursday, it was the deputy LR Guy Teissier who took up the torch. Senator Gilles who blocked on the name of Vassal is ready to rally to Teissier but one of its three elected officials, the radical left Lisette Narducci, ensures that it will not necessarily vote as its head of the list. Thereupon, the LR mayor of the ninth and tenth arrondissement, Lionel Royer-Perreaut, was also a candidate to succeed Gaudin. As for Stéphane Ravier, the leader of the Marseille extreme right, very hostile to Martine Vassal, he is much better disposed towards Guy Teissier. The latter, who campaigned in his youth to the New Forces Party, a tiny group of the far right, does not formally object to the possible help of the RN. In this game with several strangers, it is not excluded that the right, although far behind the Marseille Spring in number of votes, can delight the mayor's chair ...
Ghali determined to cash out his rally
How was the Marseille left, the majority on paper, able to get into such a quagmire? By maintaining its candidate in the popular sector of Samia Ghali, the Marseille Spring has not only taken a certain risk in relation to the RN in ambush, it has also poisoned its relations with a possible ally. Become the arbiter of the third round with its 8 seats, the senator of the northern districts, who received this Friday the unexpected support of the actor Alain Delon, is determined to pay dearly for his rallying.
After retiring on her Aventine at the start of the week, in order to let the people in charge of the Marseilles Spring simmer, she asked for the post of first assistant. The same that Michèle Rubirola reserved for the socialist Benoît Payan to whom she feels very close. Hence this reaction outraged Friday in a statement from the leader of the left: "The future of Marseille should not be played around an individual claim. I will not be held hostage to any blackmail. "
A blockage that makes a close friend of the ex-PS senator smile: “Leftists when they make lists of leftists, they have a little trouble landing. They believe they are elected and they are not. Visibly well informed, he adds categorically: "Samia Ghali wants to be the first assistant and she will not give up. She will be a candidate to the end and it will be 42-42. Problem: in the event of a tie, the oldest will be elected, ie Guy Teissier and his 75 spring. Without a real majority, the city would however be quickly ungovernable. Or how the Marseille Spring is likely to turn into a Marseille curse.