We are publishing in full the statements that various parties have wished to send us, without any exclusion. Nice-Premium, which aims to be an independent and participatory information tool, feels obligated to give a voice to all those who request it. Reading these statements requires taking your time, but democracy also means trying to understand the reasons of one side and the other.
MODEM
Following this election, François Bayrou and the Democratic Movement express their satisfaction at seeing a clear increase in the number of our new general councilors.
They are now 32, compared to 12 outgoing.
On the occasion of the cantonal elections, the Democratic Movement invested in or supported nearly 400 candidates across France. These candidates achieved an average score of 13.87 percent of the votes in the first round. Of the 70 qualified for the second round, nearly half were elected. We want to congratulate these men and women, agents of renewal, who – regardless of the score obtained – demonstrated courage and showcased their skills in a challenging election for a young political formation like ours. We also extend our thanks to the thousands of members and supporters who mobilized on the ground for this occasion.
Our intention was to respect the meaning of this election by sending a local message to the citizens and concentrating on projects that addressed their daily concerns.
These favorable results validate our choice to respect local realities and support candidates who are both established and promising, while progressively bringing forth a new political generation in all territories, beyond traditional partisan divides.
This election also strengthens the independence of the Democratic Movement. Of the 70 candidates who carried our voice high in the second round, around thirty were opposed to Socialist candidates, about ten against the UMP, about ten against DVD, about ten against DVG, 4 against the FN, and 3 against EELV.
This increase in the number of Democratic Movement elected officials encourages us to continue down the path of freedom of action and proposal, which we claim and the French recognize as the only credible alternative.
We persist in denouncing the misleading calculation method used by the Ministry of the Interior, which consists of comparing our votes to the whole of the 2,026 renewable cantons, while we chose to invest candidates in only 400 cantons.
LES ALTERNATIFS
In Nice, too, a left alternative is necessary.
With abstention, blank and null votes even stronger, and the far-right results even higher in Nice than in the major cities of the country, the cantonal elections confirmed that the crisis of political representation and the growing rejection of the political class also concern our city.
This is the major lesson of this election and it is not, in the least, drawn by most political forces and local elected officials of Nice, notably by an UMP boasting because it gains two seats but takes care not to mention that it is losing votes, and by a PS without any perspective on its regression.
There is every reason to fear and all bet that this crisis of political representation and this rejection of the political class will intensify even more.
In such a context, the Alternatifs of Nice reaffirm the imperative need for a left alternative, centered around a project for our city, based on active democracy, solidarity, and ecology, and around a different political practice than that of professional politics, careerism, and accumulation of mandates.
This is such an alternative – which the Alternatifs have begun to put in place with their citizen forum partners – that can, alone, restore hope, rehabilitate politics, and build a barrier against the UMP and the threat of the far right.
PARTI RADICAL DE GAUCHE
Agreements and disagreements.
While across France, the left is progressing, it is declining in the Alpes-Maritimes… Talking about “bad luck” or a “hiccup” is obviously not enough. The PS and its partners must question themselves and change certain practices…
We need invested elected officials.
First, we must remember that the showcase of the left, between elections, are its elected officials. They must, therefore, tirelessly work the field and master their files. Everyone must bring added value to the left… Is it normal that we have forgotten even the names of some left municipal councilors in Nice? Is it normal that three left regional councilors elected in the Alpes-Maritimes do not even live in our department? Yet, the left needs all its elected officials to be invested, tough, and hardworking to be credible and visible for the next time.
Sure, we can always enjoy placing our “friends” instead of more competent and representative candidates but, after a while, it reflects in the polls! Besides, this time, many left voters voted FN; well then!
We must rethink our agreements.
Above all, the famous “widest possible union,” tinkered for these cantonal elections, was doomed to failure. For years, the PRG has been explaining that we must approach things differently:
1) Alliances must be closed much earlier (between a year and six months before) so that the designated candidates have time to run a long campaign and thus weave a trust relationship with the voters.
2) Unique candidacies must be obtained through electoral and programmatic agreements, and not through intimidation. The press conference organized by Patrick Allemand to threaten the PRG with repercussions in case of candidature in Nice 11 thus gave a very curious image of the left. Especially since, as we said, the problem in this canton, was not a possible PRG candidacy but rather a declared PCF candidacy!
3) To be effective, agreements must no longer be variable geometry; the union must be global and homogeneous. Let us recall that the left stupidly missed the second round in two winnable cantons (Nice 7 and Nice 11) because the PCF or EELV wanted to count themselves!
4) The left must open up to the center (MoDem, AEI…) to form a majority.
5) To be audible, alliances must extend from one election to another, at least for local elections.
6) It seems obvious, but after the regional episode, it is appropriate to recall that agreements signed – which often took a long time to negotiate – must then be… respected!
This is indeed necessary to maintain one’s credibility, allow for a lasting union, and respect the voters.
The left radicals of the Alpes-Maritimes are at the disposal of their partners to meet and define a new way of working together.
When will a departmental liaison committee of the left be created?
FN 06
The candidates of the Front National of the Alpes-Maritimes warmly thank the voters who have placed their trust in them.
Thanks to all, our political movement now represents a credible alternative to the deadly politics implemented by the UMP-PS system elected officials.
The FN and its candidates give you an appointment in April and May 2012 for the “mother of all battles,” the presidential election,
where our candidate Marine Le Pen will embody hope for millions of French to be able to implement the only salvatory policy for our great and beautiful Nation, the Front National program.
PARTI COMMUNISTE
The government was particularly concerned about these elections, and they were right. They did everything to try to limit publicity and from this point of view, contributed to the importance of abstention.
The very high level of abstention in this election, along with the rise of the FN, is one of the worrying aspects of this election. The significance of abstention reflects an increasingly deep crisis of political representation, but also illustrates a true absence of a credible prospect on the left.
Despite the profound disapproval towards the UMP and Sarkozy, we are not witnessing a true left surge. On the contrary, the one strengthened by this election is the FN, with all that represents regression.
In this context, the progress of the Left Front and the Communist Party constitutes an interesting and encouraging aspect.
This is the third consecutive election where we are implementing this approach.
If in the Regional elections we confirmed the results of the Europeans, the loss of elected officials due to the electoral method had not allowed us to fully appreciate the result. Here we progress in % and gain seats nationwide. It is the first time since 1998.
In our department, the objective was the re-election of our two outgoing representatives and to strengthen the Left Front’s progress.
The first objective is achieved with the re-election in the first round of Noël and that of Jacques in the second, after a difficult duel with the FN in a canton where it historically achieves its best scores in Nice (with the 12th and 14th). In a context marked by an overmedia exposure of the FN that placed the 3rd canton of Nice among its priorities, and faced with a deafening silence of the local UMP leaders, the re-election of Jacques Victor was snatched thanks to Jacques’s strong presence on the ground and the formidable militant involvement. It contributes to the fact that the communists won 36 duels out of the 37 that opposed us to the FN.
The re-election of our 2 outgoing representatives is an asset to make another voice heard.
The second objective, we can note with satisfaction the progress of the Left Front and particularly the communist candidates. This progress is significant in our department.
Compared to 2004, back then with all the results of the 26 cantons, we obtained 13,888 votes and 7.21% being present in 20 cantons out of 26
In 2011, with a presence, due to our agreements on a smaller number of cantons, 17 out of 26 (including 13 communist incumbents and 4 PG), we obtained 12,423 votes and progressed to 8.32%.
In these 17 cantons, there are 15 where we were present in 2004 and 2011. In these 15 cantons, we move from 11.14% to 14%
The real dynamic on the left is at the Left Front, and our good results that reinforce the re-election of our outgoing representatives place us in the Alpes-Maritimes in an offensive situation in a situation where the PS and EEVL are at least in difficulty.
The PS results in 06 are concerning for the entire left.
In our department, due to the right-FN-left power balance, any slight weakening takes on greater proportions.
Masked at the national level by gaining several departments, the PS score, along with the force of abstention, reflects a real absence of alternative in our country and bolsters our desire to act to provide answers to popular demands.
This situation gives us a particular responsibility. With our partners within the Left Front, we demonstrate that it is possible to regain ground. Of course, this is still largely insufficient, but we have succeeded in reversing a heavy trend.
The results of the cantonal elections in its various aspects (abstention, FN score, sanction of the right, lack of momentum of the PS and EELV, and progress of the Left Front) reflect a political situation that presents several characteristics:
The first that the social movement carried is the very strong social demand in the face of the crisis, its consequences, and the government’s choices.
A right and an executive, at the lowest in electoral results, but whose determination to not yield is very strong. No illusions about the pseudo social shift of Christian Estrosi… A right that finds itself in great difficulty caught in the trap of its attempt to recover the FN electorate.
A left in a situation where it can win but could just as well fail. Fail in 2012 in the presidential and legislative polls or win by default in 2012 and fail thereafter for not meeting popular demands.
Concerning the Left Front, although for the third time we confirm and record progress, we must not hide the extent of the effort before us to meet the challenges of the 2012 deadlines. This involves making the Left Front more popular in its approach and in its popular appropriation.
It is in this spirit that we approach the opening period where communists will have to define their choice for 2012.
We approach it with four objectives:
1) On one hand, defeat Nicolas Sarkozy and his majority, and create the conditions for a real alternative on the left.
2) Develop with the men and women of this country a popular and shared program around the major priorities of what the left must do…
3) Work on a popular and citizen broadening of the Left Front with a collective campaign apparatus reflecting the political practice we want, the very opposite of the highly personalized presidential election.
4) Finally, we want to link the Presidential and Legislative elections very closely and restore all their importance to the latter.
The will of the departmental direction of the PCF is to create all conditions for a new stage in the development of the Left Front.
On all these questions, up to the choice of the presidential candidate and the legislative candidates, the communists of the Alpes-Maritimes will debate in the coming weeks and create the conditions for debate.
Therefore, we are taking the initiative for a public meeting in Nice on May 10, 2011, on the theme “The Best Way to Combat the Far Right: Succeeding on the Left in 2012.”
