“Our regions have talent”, proclaims a brand created by a major retailer in France. A watchword that Renaud Muselier, the president of the Paca region, could make his own when launching his “100% regional” political party called “Our territories first”.
This Friday evening, the 200 elected officials who signed the announcement of the creation of this party in mid-September meet at the Théâtre des Calanques, in the 8th arrondissement of Marseille for its official launch. And this new political offer where “everyone is free to have a double membership, national and local, whatever it is outside the extremes”, has visibly seduced a political spectrum ranging from ex-socialists to ex or d current LR through centrists. It includes the mayors of the most important municipalities in the region – Hubert Falco (Toulon), Christian Estrosi (Nice), Sophie Joissains (Aix-en-Provence) – with the notable exception of the first of them, Marseille. Also included is Martine Vassal, president of the Aix-Marseille metropolis, president of the Bouches-du-Rhône region and a dozen parliamentarians, senators and deputies, from En Marche or LR.
A sort of “En Marche” from the south
Once measured this large gathering, it is clear that this regional party clearly resembles a kind of southern En Marche. And if Renaud Muselier, like Martine Vassal and Christian Estrosi, all three left Les Républicains during the presidential campaign to support Emmanuel Macron without yet joining the presidential party, that is enough to install Renaud Muselier as the leader of a broad political force in Paca.
Because this new political tool is also a response to the course of the previous regional election, where the candidate of the RN, Thierry Mariani, would undoubtedly have won the bet if the candidate of the left, Jean-Laurent Félizia, had not withdrawn. to avoid a triangular peril. Contacted, the latter will not be part of this regional movement which he describes as “non-event”.
Still, “Our territories first” seems to be a tailor-made formation intended to beat the National Rally in the local elections. An analysis that makes Franck Alisio, RN deputy and head of the RN group at the regional assembly, smile. “It’s not beating the RN, but staying in power that they want,” he commented. “It’s a macronist party, the car sweeps away opportunists”, mocks Franck Alisio who believes that “Muselier finished deserting the right-wing political space”, space now occupied by the RN.
However, the faithful to the LRs joining this movement do not despair at the idea of seeing the emergence “right-wing political force must exist between the macronists and the extremes”, comments Nicolas Isnard, vice-president of the Region and member of the LRs. Regionally, while Eric Ciotti and David Lisnard, the mayor of Cannes, – both members of the LRs – this seems compromised both in PACA and the classic right never stops dividing on the question of the RN.
Do not remain “political stateless”
But, according to those who will join Renaud Muselier’s party, that is not the goal. “The solutions are less and less partisan and more and more territorial”, advances Jean-Pierre Serrus, regional councilor and Walker of the first hour. Opposed to the latter during national deadlines, Nicolas Isnard, believes that they “do a good job together” and thus subscribes to this analysis that “good local policies” are made outside the national chapels. this regional movement also carries out some “takes” in the center, even on the left. The centrist ex-candidate for the regional Jean-Marc Governatori is in the game, as is the ex-boss of the Vaucluse socialists, Jean-François Lavisolo, now a majority deputy.
For Renaud Muselier and the LRs in the region who have left the party recently, it is also a way to find a structure and no longer remain “political stateless”. While preparing for the future, with training that we can easily imagine in other regions of France, while En Marche (now Renaissance) struggles to exist outside of national authorities.