Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes: Najat Vallaud-Belkacem back on the front line for the regions

It's a comeback that spices up the regional elections in Auvergne Rhône-Alpes.

Three months before the first round, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem announces in an interview to appear this Sunday in "Le Dauphiné Libéré", "Le Progrès" and "La Montagne" that she will be at the top of the list in her region of origin, confirming a rumor that had been circulating for several weeks.

The ex-minister of François Hollande, withdrawn for almost four years from political life, offers himself a return by the front door to challenge the outgoing president (LR) of the region Laurent Wauquiez, in a confrontation that is already shaping up mercilessly.

In her interview, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem believes that it is high time “to turn the page on clientelism” of the current head of the regional executive, whom she describes as “mini-Trump”.

An hour after the officialization of his candidacy, the Wauquiez camp was already responding with live ammunition.

For the entourage of the outgoing president, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem represents "a left more interested in its internal competition than in the future of the region".

Atmosphere.

She does not close the door to the Greens and rebellious France

This announcement comes after the failure of negotiations with environmentalists led by Fabienne Grébert.

At the end of February, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem even said he was ready to step aside in favor of his competitor in exchange for a reinforced presence in the regional executive.

"But instead of a balanced rally, the ecologists demanded a dry rally, they snubbed our proposals" laments Jean-François Debat, leader of the socialist opposition at the regional council.

The new candidate will therefore leave at the head of a list called "The Alternative", made up of the PS, the Radical Left Party, Cap Ecology and the Republican and Social Left.

Even if it does not close the door to new discussions with other leftist parties, EELV, PC or LFI.

Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, who was successively Minister of Women's Rights, government spokesperson then Minister of National Education, gained ground after 2017, first becoming Director of International Public Affairs at the Ipsos Institute and then Director of the anti-poverty NGO One, a year ago.

But she remained as one of the emblematic figures of the "Holland generation", these young ministers launched by the socialist president like, moreover, a certain Emmanuel Macron.

The support of François Hollande

This Saturday evening, the former President of the Republic congratulated himself on seeing her return to service.

"It is good that a woman who combines ministerial experience with the renewal of generations is committed to a region where she has lived and exercised elective mandates," confides to the

Parisian - Today in France

François Hollande.

She will bravely hold her line at first, the better to gather later.

"

The comeback of NVB, 43, is hardly a surprise to those who know her.

"Considering her age and her exceptional start to her career, it was inconceivable that she could put an end to it so soon" remarks her ex-colleague in the government André Vallini.

Since the summer, she has been eyeing more and more towards the Auvergne - Rhône-Alpes region where she made her debut in politics, first by joining the regional council in 2004 then by becoming municipal councilor then deputy of Gérard Collomb at the Lyon city hall between 2008 and 2013.

"It is someone who is completely inhabited by politics: it tickled her for a while to come back," says Maxime Ruszniewski, a relative, who was her spokesperson at the Ministry of Women's Rights.

This region is close to his heart and the current crisis has perhaps awakened his desire to act on ecology, social justice and especially the reduction of inequalities which is his compass.

"

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Still, the fight that awaits promises to be difficult against the very established Laurent Wauquiez and in a context of fragmentation of the left.

Senator of the North and former Minister of Sports, Patrick Kanner also welcomes a "courageous" approach.

"If the PC, LFI and the Greens could put themselves around it, as we put ourselves behind the ecologists in Hauts-de-France for the union, it would be a good thing and a choice of common sense" calls he does.