NP: Nice-Premium: Patrick Allemand, what is your reaction after this first round in the first constituency of Nice?
Patrick Allemand: In a difficult national context and a departmental context that gave the UMP 8 out of 9 constituencies, I am satisfied with my score—
significantly higher than that of Ségolène Royal in the first round of the presidential elections—and even more so with my presence in the second round, making me the only left-wing candidate still in the running in our department. However, it’s clear that the odds are against me. Eric Ciotti’s parachuting did not work as he had hoped, but the UMP label mechanically ensured him a high score nonetheless.
NP: Wave, surge, tsunami of blue color. What do you think of the results on the local, regional, national level?
Patrick Allemand: We are in a confirmation election, like after the presidential elections of 1981, 1988, and 2002. In a state of grace, things are made very difficult for the opposition, especially since the majority keeps hammering the message that everything is decided to demobilize our electorate and engages in poaching personalities who belonged to the left to sow confusion.
We are therefore witnessing a wave that turns out to be a surge throughout the Southeast and especially in the Alpes-Maritimes, which is the most right-leaning department in France. But I want to tell all the socialist activists and all the left-wing voters in this department that nothing is lost and the fight continues. In Nice, Dominique Boy-Mottard, Paul Cuturello, and Elodie Jomat all ran very good campaigns and achieved respectable scores. In the rest of the department too, our candidates performed well. It’s the UMP that was very high due to the siphoning of the National Front which worked fully here because of the lack of leadership at the FN and the porosity that exists between the right and extreme right in the Southeast.
The only place where the machine jammed is in the 1st constituency where my local implantation, that of my substitute Marc Concas, and the contestation of the parachuting of E. Ciotti by a part of the right-wing voters means there is a second round and everything is possible.
NP: What will be your program until the final vote?
Patrick Allemand: I will tirelessly be on the ground alongside my activists to convince and reach out to voters one by one. I want to convince all those who did not vote for E. Ciotti in the first round and those who abstained that I am the candidate of unity and pluralism against the man of a clan.
NP: How would you define your opponent?
Patrick Allemand: E. Ciotti’s qualities express themselves more naturally in an office than on the ground alongside the inhabitants, where a representative’s place should be. The dissension and respectable score of Jérôme Rivière, and especially the unprecedented virulence of the campaign among the different right-wing candidates demonstrate that his landing in the constituency was very tough.
He is a man who is far from unanimous in his camp and who constantly needs to rely on his label and the support of his boss to exist. If he is elected, he will be just another rubber-stamp deputy, a man of a clan, in short, the opposite of what I want to embody.
NP: Nicolas Sarkozy was present in Nice on Tuesday. What do you think of this visit to the Côte d’Azur?
Patrick Allemand: It clearly shows the will of the UMP and the clan I was referring to to rule unchallenged and to eradicate all opposition in this department.
8 constituencies out of 9 are won by the UMP and they move the President of the Republic himself to the only constituency where there is still some doubt. That’s giving me a lot of honor but this excess of resources is indecent.
NP: The Socialist Party is going through a very difficult period. Do you also think that a restructuring is necessary after the legislative elections?
Patrick Allemand: Of course. If our values must remain the same, as Ségolène Royal said after her defeat in the second round of the presidential election, we need to change the left’s software to align our ideas with public expectations and with the very rapid social changes.
I’m convinced that the presidential pact was a good project for France, but on some issues we will need to evolve or refine our positions, without taboo and with the sole aim of carrying the values of the left which are immutable.
NP: The next vote will be municipal. What are the lessons to learn to stop the negative spiral in the PS and within the left?
Patrick Allemand: The past has shown more than once that local elections in Nice are disconnected from the national context. I’m not going to tell you that losing the legislative elections is an advantage. But I sincerely believe that it does not jeopardize anything for the future.
NP: You are the only local leftist representative still in the running. Great pressure or steely morale?
Patrick Allemand: Both. Being the only left-wing candidate to make it to the second round in the department puts a tremendous responsibility on me in a very difficult context. But indeed, I maintain a steely morale because I carry the hopes of many men and women of the left in the constituency and in the department, and this gives me additional strength to fight to the end.
NP: What do you estimate your chances of winning in the second round?
Patrick Allemand: I am convinced that the violence of the campaign has left marks and we should expect poor voting transfers in favor of E. Ciotti. From there, if I mobilize voters who had supported Ségolène Royal in the second round of the presidential election and who did not come to vote last Sunday, everything remains possible.
NP: Finally, where will you be next Sunday when the results are announced?
Patrick Allemand: At my Port office at 13 rue Bavastro, alongside the activists who have brought me to where I am today.
