By being elected this Wednesday at the head of the powerful association of mayors of France (AMF) to replace François Baroin, David Lisnard will finally be able to appear at the top of the political poster.
A consecration at the age of 52 for the former president of the Palais des Festivals in Cannes, who has passed over the last few years from a supporting role to that of one of the best male hopes of the right.
A casting that the LR mayor of Cannes won against the UDI mayor of Sceaux Philippe Laurent, more Macron-compatible than him.
This son of a footballer and dancer, a law graduate and claimed liberal, began his career from 1996 to 1999 as chief of staff and parliamentary attaché to the deputy mayor RPR of Lons-Le-Saunier (Jura), Jacques Pélissard (predecessor by François Baroin at the AMF).
“One day, I saw a job search ad that he had published in the Municipal Gazette.
I met him, his personality seduced me ", tells the former city councilor who adds:" David Lisnard immediately told me:
I am coming to learn in the Jura but I will not stay because I want to be mayor of Cannes
!
"
An omnipresent mayor facing the Covid-19
The accomplished marathoner is the type to know the layout of his race well.
In 2001, he became deputy mayor of Cannes, in particular in charge of tourism, economic development and events.
A major delegation on the Croisette which allows it to show the extent of its know-how ... and to make it known.
Focused on communication, the hyperactive, as comfortable talking about the Ramones as Balzac, rubs shoulders with the stars of the cinema: to believe him, it is he who would have introduced Twitter to Steven Spielberg and Nicole Kidman .
After the red carpet, the blue-white-red scarf: in 2014, he succeeded Bernard Brochand as mayor of Cannes.
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After being propelled spokesperson for François Fillon in 2017, the one who defines himself as having “a conservative reflex” will be re-elected in 2020 with the North Korean score of 88%, leaving his municipal opposition no seat. That year, he hit the screen. His hyperactivism in the face of Covid-19 - he multiplies the distribution of masks, delivers products to homes, activates drones spraying bactericide - as well as his very noticeable column against the bureaucracy published in November in Le Figaro panics the speculation counter: and if the mayor of Cannes nourished presidential ambitions?
In an LR family in need of incarnations, the Lisnard option is taken seriously.
He himself has never hidden being tight in his local elected official costume.
At each of his political returns, which he has been leading since 2008 on the hill of Saint-Cassien, his speech goes well beyond local issues.
"I make national speeches all the time because I like it," explains the slayer of the state Leviathan.
"Lisnard wants to be president of the world"
He is careful not to deny rumors about his possible candidacy for a right-wing primary.
"Passionate about public affairs, I passed a course, I was spokesperson for Fillon", he confides, in mid-May.
If he then considers that a presidential adventure seems "unrealistic", "it flatters the ego", he admits, perceiving "the media interest" for him.
“The choice of commitment to be President of the Republic goes well beyond envy.
You have to be able.
I try to be in national capacity to assert my convictions, ”he slips.
To do this, he published a book in April on culture, launched his political movement, New Energy in June, with the immodest ambition "to bring content to the void of the political offer".
Read also Presidential: David Lisnard, mayor of Cannes, wants to count for 2022
“Lisnard wants to be president of the world. As soon as there is an opportunity, he throws himself on it, “squeaks the president (LR) of Paca, Renaud Muselier. In the absence of an open primary on the right, he formalizes at the end of September that he will not be a presidential candidate. If he admits to having found Macron “clever, attractive” when he was in Bercy, he nevertheless says he is “very upset” against the one who “centralized everything” around him.
“With Macron, we no longer have any ties.
He just texted me thanking me for sending my book.
He mustn't have read it… ”he sighed in the spring.
"It is not insulting President Emmanuel Macron to say that he has a problem of accepting independent powers and controversy," he still lashes in Le Point.
At the head of the AMF, David Lisnard should not be satisfied with making up the figures.
