Nice-Premium: According to you, what are the positive points of the PS compared to the other represented parties?
Michel Vauzelle: These regional elections are not fundamentally elections that oppose political parties. It is first a choice that citizens must make between two radically opposing models of society.
The UMP list considers it to be only national elections, without regional content, during which one should simply show support for the President of the Republic. A support, also, for outdated policies, the ones initiated in the 1980s by Margaret Thatcher in the United Kingdom or Ronald Reagan in the United States, which have since proven their profound inefficiency.
In contrast, there are the lists of the Olive Tree Alliance, with the socialists, the Radical Left Party, the Republican and Citizen Movement, but also the communists and the Greens when they decide to join us. We defend a French model of society, founded on our republican values of liberty, equality, and fraternity. We also defend the right of the region to exist and the possibility for the citizens of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur to choose their future themselves, rather than having it imposed on them by the Parisian power, as the UMP would wish.
N-P: How do you plan to meet the citizens’ expectations? (main commitments)
M.V.: The first challenge to tackle is employment. The law entrusts this mission to the state, but the government’s policies are socially unjust and economically ineffective. However, the region is competent in the field of economic development. We have already created 33,000 jobs in Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur. We must continue and create 10,000 jobs per year, thanks to our Regional Employment Plan, our support for businesses, our aid for the social and solidarity economy, and our capacity for public investment…
Beyond that, we want to place humans at the center of all our decisions. This is the challenge of a fairer society, more responsible development, and a more balanced planning of our territories. The region carries this hope. It is in charge of building high schools: we will equip all the roofs of our institutions with solar panels. It oversees regional express trains: we will fully finance the travel of young people aged 12 to 25, who need mobility, and the most disadvantaged, who need regional solidarity. These are just a few examples of what we want and what we can do, but these initiatives will contribute, at the regional level, to concretely addressing vital issues.
N-P: You visited Nice recently. In conclusion of this visit, what are the main projects you have developed for the Alpes-Maritimes?
M.V.: I am the President of this region and I am often in Nice and Alpes-Maritimes. Territorial equity and regional solidarity are at the heart of our actions and our project. This department has tremendous assets, but it must face the challenges of more balanced planning and more sustainable development of the Alpes-Maritimes.
We will continue to support and finance structuring projects. We work very well with the Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, and we will implement, with him, the Development Contract that the region has signed with the Urban Community, which notably concerns the financing of the tramway.
We will also ensure the modernization of the Provence Railway, to the tune of 100 M€, to create a genuine RER for the Nice conurbation. We will further support the Operation of National Interest in the Var Plain, which is vital for the development of this entire territory.
N-P: In several leaflets, you mention problems encountered in the public rail transport service, what solutions do you propose?
M.V.: The regional express trains are the great success of the region. With 3 billion euros of investment, we have managed to operate 700 trains daily, compared to 290 in 1998. We have improved passenger comfort by purchasing 100 new trainsets and renovating 190 others. The results are clear: the number of daily users has increased by no less than 90%.
However, this record is partially tarnished by the attitude of the SNCF, which is legally responsible for operating our trains: we pay it an annual subsidy of 220 M€ for this. But its management deliberately chooses to cut railway worker positions: it has reduced its workforce from 12,000 to 8,000. The state prefers to pocket the dividends from the exploitation of the TGV, deemed more profitable, and seems to consider the regional public rail service as a second-rate service… This is intolerable!
For this reason, the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region was the first in France to demand penalties for non-compliance with the contract signed with the SNCF. They have been doubled and raised to 15 M€. I also want to explain to users that we must remain mobilized to, together, pressurize the SNCF and the State. We, the citizens of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur, have the same rights as the TGV users!
N-P: What score do you hope for at the end of the regional elections in the PACA region?
M.V.: It is not fundamentally a question of score. The question posed is the very existence of the region. What I hope for is that the citizens of Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur will be able to continue choosing their future themselves, without the local UMP representative imposing here what the UMP decides in Paris. I simply hope for a score that carries hope and confidence for our region.
