Nice-Première: Let’s start with the hot news with the arrival of the first tramway car overnight from Monday to Tuesday. What does this evoke for you, is it a sigh of relief?
Juliana Chichmanian-Delpy: For me, it is a relief. It is almost the culmination of many years of work, a few years of suffering or a few months for the people of Nice, but years of work to reach a stage where it is going to emerge. We have suffered, but it is here.
I went to Bordeaux during the tramway construction and after. I noticed how anxious and sometimes aggressive people, especially shopkeepers, were during the works, and how much they praised the tramway afterward. Bordeaux is now a completely different city.
It is a relief, but I have never been worried, and I am not now. We know that it will modernize the city and allow for much smoother traffic than it is now.
NP: Did you see this tram car upon its arrival?
J C-P: This tram car arrived between midnight and three in the morning. After the very hard day I had with board meetings, representations of the Mayor… At midnight, I was in bed.
NP: You are the First Deputy of the Fifth City in France, you are vice-president of the Canca, a regional councilor, president of OPAC, yet people say you are a woman who works behind the scenes, hardworking but discreet. Do you consider these descriptions as criticism or a compliment?
J C-P: I think they are compliments. First of all, I am an eternal optimist. I have always seen the glass as half-full rather than half-empty. It is true that I am hardworking because I was a lawyer for thirty years. A lawyer, if they want to succeed—and I claim to have succeeded—has to study their cases, meet their clients, attend hearings, and work 35 hours every two days. So, I am used to working a lot. I am lucky to only need four or five hours of sleep per night. The rest of the time, I need to stay busy, maybe because I have a little too much energy. I spend a lot of time at the office. I do a lot of things. I have many responsibilities, but to me, that is a quality.
NP: How do you manage to divide your schedule between all these roles?
J C-P: I admit it’s quite difficult, but I am hyper-organized. I am never late. All appointments are scheduled. I expect my excellent collaborators to give me the files at least 24 or 48 hours in advance. As I have a great memory, I read the files the night before and sleep on them! My mother was a doctor. She taught me that it’s the day after that we remember what we read the day before. I always did this even when I was cramming because when I was taking my baccalaureate, I spent more time in dance halls than in classes. All I needed was to read the night before… The next day, I realized I knew everything.
I don’t read speeches; I deliver them. I speak; I don’t read. I always prepare a lot beforehand. I am very meticulous. For some, it might be a bit tough, but that’s how it is.
NP: Are you delegating more than before with your new position at OPAC?
J C-P: I arrived at OPAC a month ago. I have just chosen a new collaborator who will start in January since OPAM has changed and has become OPAC, so everything has changed. At City Hall, I have excellent collaborators.
NP: Earlier, I mentioned being a woman behind the scenes. The shadow is, in some ways, that of Jacques Peyrat. How is your collaboration? Is it sometimes tense, sometimes jovial? We’d like to indulge our curiosity. As if there was a camera, could you reveal the behind-the-scenes, the hidden side?
J C-P: I have been Jacques Peyrat’s deputy for twelve years. During the first mandate, I was the eighth deputy, in the second, the second deputy for a few months, then the first deputy. As the Mayor of Nice and I knew each other when we were lawyers forty years ago, I know him from pleading against him. He even had the audacity to plead for Armenians while I represented the French. I can’t remember who won. But he was very tough with me as I was with him.
Currently, our meetings are always serious, very serious, and 20% jovial. As both he and I are lawyers, we are free and independent. I tell him what I truly think. Sometimes I don’t agree with him, and I tell him. It’s quite rare, but it happens. He takes it well. He listens or doesn’t listen. He is the boss. But I have the freedom to tell him what I think. We have exchanges that have never been disputes or fights. They are more intellectual exchanges on files or opportunities, ways to act for the interest of the people of Nice.
NP: How do you call him: Mr. Senator Mayor, Mr. Peyrat, Jacques?
J C-P: Half of the time, I call him Mr. Mayor and the other half Jacques.
NP: Does he have a preference, so we know how to address him the day we interview him?
J C-P: I haven’t asked him. In my opinion, it doesn’t matter much to him. I understand he has a certain elegance and likes being called Mr. Senator Mayor.
NP: Let’s talk about your “latest news”: OPAC. What are your first major projects and priorities within OPAC?
J C-P: Arriving there a month ago, I first assessed the situation. I visited all the agencies with Director Françoise Baron and her entire staff. I saw all the external agencies. I visited OPAC and saw a number of people living in social housing in Nice and elsewhere, even though I hadn’t waited for this position to meet them.
Being a woman of numbers and with the 2007 budget figures to be announced at the next board meeting on December 21, there would be 25 million euros for new social housing construction. There would be double, meaning 52 million for rehabilitation. What I plan to do is not only to rehabilitate and construct but also to take my pilgrim’s staff to tour the 163 municipalities of this departmental OPAC to try to build throughout the department.
NP: Have you decided on the locations of the new constructions?
J C-P: No. In the past month, we have already acquired a plot in Eze and are pursuing several “leads.” My ambition is to do all this for the tenants. Tenants need to know it’s for their better living that I intend to do all this.
NP: 25 million corresponds to how many homes?
J C-P: It seems to me that it is a little over a thousand. I could specify it later.
“When one is the first deputy, it is to consider becoming Mayor”
NP: There is a recurring topic, almost a trend: women in politics. Does it annoy you to have to constantly justify the legitimacy of women in politics?
J C-P: This topic doesn’t annoy me. I know it’s very trendy, and I accept trends. As for me, I was born before this obligation of parity as I entered politics in 1995. I note that it’s true that without this law, there would still be fewer women in politics. I even believe there are many more in the Senate than in the National Assembly. It seems strange, but that’s how it is. I see it’s trendy since several countries worldwide are governed by women. This topic doesn’t bother me. It’s a trend, a time. Anyway, women must pay for the equality they request. There are women who are airline pilots. When we see them in the cockpit, we aren’t going to get off.
NP: Do you have specific ambitions in the medium or long term?
J C-P: When one doesn’t move forward, one moves backward. I was born the eighth deputy. I became the first, then a regional councilor. I have the ambitions that my party will decide to give me as I am very loyal to the UMP, the only political party to which I belong. I have never joined any other party.
NP: Would you like to be Mayor of Nice? At least in your dreams during your four or five hours of sleep…
J C-P: This rather tricky question makes me answer clearly: when one is the first deputy, it’s to envisage becoming the Mayor. I am not opposed to being it, but I am not a candidate today and certainly not against the Mayor of Nice as some like to suggest probably to create discord which I don’t care about.
NP: Debates and primaries in the UMP are currently taking place. We saw Michèle Alliot-Marie complaining about last-minute changes in the nature of the debates. What does this inspire in you?
J C-P: I obviously follow the political news, especially in the late evening since, being equipped with cable, I have the chance to watch parliamentary television. It is normal that there are several candidates, but for now, only one has emerged: Nicolas Sarkozy. For the moment, I would campaign for Nicolas Sarkozy if I get the opportunity.
NP: Isn’t it negative for the UMP to have only one candidate in these debates?
J C-P: I do not think so. If there is only one, it’s because they have found a modus vivendi, a common ground, shared points which make it better to have a good candidate who reaches the result rather than two who might collide.
NP: Nicolas Sarkozy, Ségolène Royal, François Bayrou, even Olivier Besancenot… what do you think of this rejuvenation of French political leaders?
J C-P: I think we shouldn’t wait for time to see talented people emerge. Refreshing political ranks is very good. There can be brilliant people at 80 who can continue to have a career, just as there can be those before. Rejuvenation is very good, very favorable, as they have the future ahead of them to do many things. Starting a life too late doesn’t give you the time to achieve what you have the opportunity to accomplish.
NP: So for you, politics should have no gender: it’s the same if one is a man or a woman, and no age factor either?
J C-P: Neither gender nor age. But if one can be rather young, it’s better.
NP: And preferably a woman?
J C-P: No, not necessarily. I am not particularly feminist. I usually say that I am not MLF but MLH (Men’s Liberation Movement), somewhat reactively. I think there are good men and women, regardless of their gender.
“Jacques Peyrat is a man of notable integrity, generosity towards others, particularly the people of Nice, and great intelligence.”
NP: If I mention Charles Aznavour, Henri Verneuil, Robert Guédiguian, Sarkis, Alain Prost, or Youri Djorkaeff? It is the Year of Armenia in Nice and France, what does this country evoke for you?
J C-P: It evokes my Armenian half since my father was Armenian, and I am proud of it. I am also distinct because my other half is Slavic as my mother was Croatian. Even if I am very good at counting since I have the finance portfolio, I have a third half because I was born when Algeria was a French department. I was marked by the Algerian War. At 13, I abruptly returned to France during the exodus on June 30, 1962. So I am a bit of a pied-noir. I’ve been a Niçoise for forty years. I studied at Lycée Calmette and then at the University of Nice, then practiced law for thirty years on Avenue Jean Médecin.
Armenia, to me, is a very beautiful small country. This year, “Armenia My Friend” is something exceptional. I watched live on television the inauguration in Yerevan of the Place of France by Presidents Kotcharian and Chirac. In Nice, a considerable number of events are planned for this year.
When you know Armenians, you know their names end with -ian meaning “son of.” When you dig deeper, you know Verneuil is 100% Armenian, Prost through his mother, and Djorkaeff. There are others. There is also: the president of Alcatel, Patrick Devedjian. The diaspora is almost more significant than the Armenians themselves. There are 3.5 million Armenians in Armenia, 1.5 million in Canada and the United States, as they have immigrated a lot, both during the genocide and after. All Armenians from Istanbul went to Canada. There are 500,000 Armenians in France and 4,000 in Nice.
NP: Have you had the opportunity to visit Armenia?
J C-P: No, never. I haven’t had the opportunity yet. I’ll go as soon as I have the chance. My personal, professional, and family engagements haven’t led me there. Unfortunately, my father died when I was 23, and I didn’t have the opportunity to visit Armenia then.
NP: Mr. Edvard Nalbandian, the Armenian Republic Ambassador to France, invited Jacques Peyrat. Are you also invited?
J C-P: Absolutely. I was there when Mr. Nalbandian came to Nice for the opening and inauguration of the year of Armenia in Nice. He invited Mr. Senator Mayor and myself. If we have the opportunity to travel to Yerevan, I would go with immense pleasure and some emotion.
NP: What will be the main events in Nice for the Year of Armenia in France?
J C-P: There are two or three events per month in Nice of all kinds: openings, educational projects, exhibitions, concerts—the Armenian music is fabulous—conferences, film screenings with the presence of Gérard Kurdjian.
I have set my sights on the evening of February 6, 2007, when there will be a probably very exceptional concert at the Nice Opera since the Yerevan Philharmonic Orchestra is coming especially. This orchestra is magnificent, created by a student of Rimsky-Korsakov. In this orchestra, nearly all members are first-prize winners from the conservatories of Moscow and Saint Petersburg since, for a long time, Armenia, by force of circumstances, had ties with Russia. There are excellent Armenian musicians.
NP: Finally, I ask you the same question as Dominique Estrosi: what triggered your engagement in politics?
J C-P: It was meeting Jacques Peyrat, whom I knew as a lawyer for many years. One day, he asked me to join his team. I accepted because I knew him as a man of notable integrity, generosity towards others, particularly the people of Nice, and great intelligence. We must remember that in 1995, it was a group of friends, without a label, who decided to take the city. Jacques Peyrat won the election against the big mammoths of political parties.
NP: Was it a political love at first sight?
J C-P: Yes. A sort of political love at first sight. Now, I am gripped by this political vice because I’ve learned something else. It’s a magnificent craft even if I practice it behind the scenes for the interest of the people of Nice, given my intellectual responsibilities.
NP: Doesn’t all this take too much of your time and prevent you from enjoying other things more?
J C-P: It’s true. But I am someone contractual. I committed to finishing this term alongside Jacques Peyrat, which I will do to the end. I will have other ambitions afterward, but I don’t know under what conditions. 80% of my time is devoted to political life. The remaining 20% is for my family, friends, and sports. Everyone knows I cross the Villefranche harbor daily, summer and winter, although not much in winter because I stop halfway. I exercise to avoid hitting a punching bag.
