They arrived at the grandstand with the impression of having climbed “Everest by the north face”. Congratulated by Eric Ciotti, himself re-elected in the 1st constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes, Christelle d’Intorni obtained a “huge victory” in the 5th, “held by Christian Estrosi since 1988”, greeted the LR deputy on Sunday evening.
The 37-year-old lawyer, mayor of the small village of Rimplas, has established herself in this territory affected by the deadly floods of October 2020 and which extends from the coast of Nice to the borders of the department, in the north. She thus dethrones Marine Brenier, whom she accused of having chosen “opportunism” rather than “convictions”.
The outgoing had resigned from the Les Républicains party to join the presidential majority just before the legislative elections. And her defeat also seems to be that of the mayor of Nice, ex-LR and former deputy, for whom she was the deputy until 2016 before he left her hand. What did not fail to recall Eric Ciotti whose enmity with the first magistrate of the fifth city of France reached a maximum.
She gradually turned her back on Christian Estrosi
“The voters made the choice of conviction against opportunism”, reacted again the new elected Sunday evening, whose tour de force was validated by 57.74% of the vote. The mother of two daughters, the youngest mayor of the Alpes-Maritimes department in 2014, had gradually turned away from Christian Estrosi, who nevertheless placed her in second position on his list for the regional elections of 2015.
In 2018, she found herself excluded from the majority group at the Paca regional council for having attacked it several times, according to its other members. The 30-year-old was also opposed to the creation of a metropolitan tax on built land, presented by the mayor and president of the metropolis, because she had promised her constituents never to increase local taxation in her municipality.
“You have betrayed your voters”
Elected in 2021 as a departmental councilor in tandem with Eric Ciotti, who has become a fierce opponent of Christian Estrosi, Christelle d’Intorni had further hardened her tone against him a few days before the first round of the legislative elections. In a letter addressed to her, she asked the mayor of Nice, who had left to join the presidential majority in May 2021, to resign from his mandate and to “submit to the polls, the only way to [lui] restore some credibility and legitimacy. “You were elected with the LR label, with the support of LR voters, you betrayed your voters,” she wrote.
The day before, the principal concerned announced that he was suspending her from her delegations to the metropolis and that he was asking her to give up the vice-presidency of the community that she slanders, he said. Charges that Christian Estrosi would have repeated in “a letter defaming her personally, addressed openly and publicly to all the inhabitants of the district” according to Christelle d’Intorni and for which the latter announced that she had filed a complaint on Thursday.
Discover the results of the second round of the 2022 legislative elections by city, department and constituency on 20minutes.fr.