It is understandable that Patrick Allemand has a bitter taste. After yesterday’s consultation, the Municipal Council will meet in a few days, but it will be without him!
Transitioning from the role of the recognized opponent of the mayor of Nice in the last term (the FN then RN group, though larger, having fractured into several pieces) to an outside commentator must be difficult.
Certainly, the unity on the left, which everyone hopes for, requires openness to others and personal humility, which is not the primary quality of its leaders.
It’s a small Mexican army full of officers and lacking troops. Doesn’t the saying go… “todos caballeros”?
Beyond the scores of each side, it is the major fact of this second round of the municipal election in Nice. The number of people who continue to vote is decreasing, election after election. And Covid19 is a convenient scapegoat. It might be one of the causes, but it played a much lesser role than in the first round.
It’s worrying. It’s a deep failure for local democracy. It also measures their exasperation, the disenchantment of the people of Nice with their political class.
The feeling that this election was decided in advance, the absence of a credible republican alternative didn’t convince abstainers to come out of their homes.
With 59.3% of the votes, the incumbent, Christian Estrosi, is elected by only 25% of the electorate. He begins his third term with a record abstention that weakens his legitimacy regardless.
The National Rally comes in second with 21.3% of the votes. It presents itself as the main opposition force to the mayor of Nice.
It owes more to the disunity of the left than to its own merit.
It’s a shame that the left and the ecologists couldn’t unite as in many cities in France where this strategy paid off and led to a win-win situation.
If this gathering had taken place, a score between 25% and 28% was attainable. Not only would this agreement have been the political event of the two rounds in an entirely lackluster electoral campaign, but it would also have allowed them to significantly distance the National Rally.
This was not the strategy chosen by EELV Nice, which attempted a democratic hold-up of the left electorate by guilt-tripping and forcing them to vote for the Nice รcologique list in the name of the republican front. It didn’t work because there was no risk of Philippe Vardon being elected.
As a result, a poor progression for the ecologists compared to what happened throughout France.
As for claiming the top spot in the opposition, it is not measured at the ballot box. It is earned through work. FN candidate Marie Christine Arnautu finished ahead of us in 2014. That did not prevent us from overshadowing her during the term.
Patrick Allemand, President of “Nice au Cลur”
