In Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, if there is a man to kill in the next elections, it is him. Perched high on his seat as LR president of the regional council since 2015, Laurent Wauquiez has made himself the best ambassador of this hard right which sees Islamo-leftists and those assisted everywhere. In the JDD, Najat Vallaud-Belkacem, tipped to be designated head of the socialist list in the region, even goes so far as to qualify him as “Mini-Trump” French-style “Who thinks that solidarity is a social cancer and equal rights a joke, who vomits ecology all day long and takes advantage of a variable geometry secularism”. So, on the record of the man close to fundamentalist Catholic circles, all the left agrees: we must put an end to this policy.
“He is against assistantship except for his own friends”
For Fabienne Grebert, head of the list of environmentalists, “Busyness” and “Division” are the best terms to rhyme with the Wauquiez mandate. “What he does best is to pit the Auvergnats and the Rhônalpins against each other”, she scolds. The candidate EELV denounces, for example, the fact that “The 30 most supported municipalitiesues by the regional council eat 25% of aid “. Which makes him say that Laurent Wauquiez “Does not care about the equity of the territories”. Jean-François Debat, current president of the socialist group in the region, considers that the former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy “Used the region to respond to its political clienteles” : “He is against assistantship except for his own friends. “
Against Laurent Wauquiez, elected all the more powerful as the NOTRe law redistributed the regions by offering him one of the richest French communities in the country, the list of grievances is endless: massive investment on the roads rather than on the railway, refusal to switch to ecological transition, elimination of aid to the unemployed … Communist leader, Cécile Cukierman continues the list: “He removed the conditionality of economic aid to companies, he bet everything on investment, forgetting that part of the operating expenses are also there to provide human and social protection and it has weakened the associative fabric. “ And draw the consequences: “We need to have a region that protects and secures everyone in their daily lives, both in health and social terms. “
While Laurent Wauquiez, favorite in the polls, is not yet officially a candidate and LaREM has propelled the deputy Bruno Bonnell as champion, the left is also getting organized, but in dispersed order. As everywhere in France, environmentalists have decided to stand apart, reinforced in this idea by their victories in Lyon (city and metropolis), Annecy and Grenoble. “I believe that environmentalists aspire to have an environmental project carried by an elected environmentalist. And I am not sure that Najat Vallaud-Belkacem is the greatest elected ecologist that we have known ”, justifies Fabienne Grebert.
EELV and PCF speak out this week
But the lines may be moving because of a proposal made by the Socialists to the whole of the left. Jean-François Debat explains that he wants “Get out of the usual logic” which governs the problem of “Party ego”. It would be the following coalition system: the party that would get the top of the list would not have the majority of seats within the regional majority. The environmental activists have until Tuesday evening to decide on the resumption of negotiations towards the rally, but Bruno Bernard, president of the Lyon metropolis, has already addressed an end of inadmissibility to the socialists, who will launch themselves alone in the battle if the union does not progress by the end of February.
For their part, the Communists must also speak between Wednesday and Saturday to choose between three options: a joint PCF / FI list led by Cécile Cukierman, a list with the PS or an autonomous list with the social movement. But whatever the decision, Cécile Cukierman is convinced that, if the left wants to beat Laurent Wauquiez, “We will have to come together in the second round to carry an ambitious project”.
Emilio Meslet
