The left "must seize" the subjects of security and secularism to resume success and avoid offering "a boulevard to extreme right-wing populism", insists Michaël Delafosse, PS mayor of Montpellier, in an interview in the Sunday Journal.
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"I campaigned on the themes of secularism and security," underlines this rising value of the Socialist Party, elected mayor in June at the age of 43.
Security, because it is "a right and because those whom we aspire to defend, the middle and popular classes, are the first victims of insecurity".
As for secularism, it must “be clearly affirmed”.
Because it is "not absurd that public money be managed in accordance with the principles on which our society is founded", affirms Michaël Delafosse who refused the presence of a veiled woman on his municipal list and the purchase of a mosque of Montpellier by "the kingdom of Morocco".
"If we do the ostrich, we offer a boulevard to extreme right-wing populism", he adds, estimating that "the left can die of these cowardice".
“There are elected officials, a minority, who prefer to flatter communitarianism.
When we use the term “Islamophobia”, we agree with those who say that we cannot criticize a religion, in this case Islam ”, asserts the young mayor.
With a view to the presidential election of 2022, Michaël Delafosse affirms that, in order to come together, the left is not obliged "to agree on all points, even if an essential base is needed: secularism, security , ecology ”.
Opposed to a primary, "machine to lose", he is enthusiastic about a possible candidacy of the PS mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, who is according to him "today the voice that counts on the left".
"If she chooses to go further, we will have a lot to say: let's go!" Says the mayor of Montpellier who assures us that "nobody wants the presidential election to be reduced" to a duel between Emmanuel Macron and Marine The pen.
