Secretary of State Sophie Cluzel – KONRAD K./SIPA
No head of the LREM list in Paca. Sophie Cluzel announced Thursday that she would finally present “no list” of the majority for the regional in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, the object of a standoff around an LR-LREM alliance. The Secretary of State has given her “support” to the list of LR Renaud Muselier.
“Renaud Muselier was able to listen to our concerns and was able to build a rallying list, around regional skills where our values are represented,” said the Secretary of State for People with Disabilities in a press release to AFP.
“It is therefore in responsibility that I will not present a list of the presidential majority in our Southern Region and that I support the list led by Renaud Muselier”, she added.
The RN given winner in the first round
On May 5, Sophie Cluzel had nevertheless assured that she remained “candidate of the presidential majority” and that it would be “represented in the first round of regional” on June 20. But Renaud Muselier assured Wednesday that there would not be Sophie Cluzel on his list, but other members of LREM – to the chagrin of LR who fears that no parliamentarian from his ranks is among the candidates.
The outgoing president of the Paca region, in search of the best formula to beat the National Assembly which is given the winner in the first round according to several polls, must unveil his head of lists on Friday. Calling himself “far from the Parisian ukases and the political attitudes of some”, Cluzel advocates “overcoming the divisions in the sole interest of the inhabitants of our region”.
“I hope that the guidelines of my campaign will last because they are the founders of the Region of tomorrow: appeasement, daring and proximity must be the watchwords of the next term of office,” she adds.
Political tussle and psychodrama
The regional Paca are the subject of a political arm wrestling around a possible alliance between LREM and LR, feared by the LR apparatus which denounces an opportunistic maneuver aimed at weakening it, in particular with a view to the presidential election of 2022.
On May 2, Prime Minister Jean Castex upset the situation by announcing the withdrawal of Cluzel’s list in favor of that of Muselier, speaking in passing of “political recomposition”.
This announcement had caused a real psychodrama within the Republicans, who had finally maintained their support for Mr. Muselier in exchange for the assurance that there would be “no agreement with LREM”. This agreement had caused the departure of the party of two elected LR, the mayor of Nice Christian Estrosi and that of Toulon Hubert Falco.
According to two polls published on Tuesday, the RN list led by Thierry Mariani (ex-LR) would come first in the first round and, for the first time, in the second round on June 27 in case of triangular, ahead of Renaud Muselier’s list.