While waiting for the experts to safely defuse the bomb found in the sea, which seems to overly concern the delicate hearts of the people of Nice (in reality, it is a simple demining operation that doesn’t warrant such emotion), another bomb went off late in the afternoon on the day of the May 8 Victory commemoration:
@estrosi: Starting next week, I will resign from the Presidency of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur Region to once again become Mayor of @VilledeNice.
Thus, Christian Estrosi is returning to head the municipality after having entrusted this role to his former first deputy Philippe Pradal 11 months ago.
This is merely an act of formality because, in fact, nothing will change regarding the current situation: Christian Estrosi has always exercised the “real” power through someone else.
To do this, he will have to leave the presidency of the PACA Region, where he was elected in December 2015. His delegated president Renaud Muselier will succeed him, swapping places in a game of musical chairs.
Ultimately, at the end of the operation, Christian Estrosi will be the mayor of Nice, president of the Metropolis, and delegated president of the Region: thus, he will have control over the entire territorial power and manage the “cascading” budgets of three entities.
Why this acceleration when his return to Nice was planned for 2019 to properly prepare for the municipal elections the following year?
Some rumors (to find the source, one must look towards…) mentioned a candidature of the former/new mayor of Nice for a government ministerial position, but the subject himself has denied this hypothesis:
@cestrosi: Neither a government position nor another proposal will change my goal. My goal is resolutely Nice. It’s always #Nice06
So, what are the possible reasons?
First, there’s the situation of his political family: after his idol Nicolas Sarkozy’s defeat in the primary, his poor relations with LR candidate François Fillon put him in a difficult position.
Furthermore, the very right-leaning strategy of the latter never appealed to Nice, who advocated for a more popular and socially open political line: for him, the enemy was the FN candidate, while the former prime minister sought the favor of voters with proposals increasingly resembling those of MLP, inspired by his (former?) friend, now rival Eric Ciotti, who had been in his service and is known for his ministerial and…municipal ambitions in 2020!
The episode on the day of the Trocadero, when Christian Estrosi called (and organized) for the withdrawal of the LR candidate and his replacement, definitively created a rift between the two men.
Since then, Christian Estrosi had been distanced from the electoral campaign apparatus, sidelined by François Fillon’s inner circle and booed or had boos orchestrated by militants during meetings held in the Region.
At the same time, Eric Ciotti became increasingly one of François Fillon’s closest collaborators and was seen at his side at all events.
François Fillon’s defeat, which left the Republicans orphaned of a victory they felt was theirs, the lack of “republican” support from the right-wing faction (Eric Ciotti’s) of his party to Emmanuel Macron (whom Christian Estrosi, on the other hand, supported since the evening of the first round with commitment), and finally, the latter’s victory, along with the brilliant scores achieved in Nice, the department, and the region, made it clear that it was time to clarify the situation: taking direct control of city affairs, clearing up the local situation with the attempt to exile deputy Eric Ciotti (deprived of the presidency of the departmental council due to the prohibition on holding multiple mandates) into the cauldron of national politics.
In any case, there’s no need for him to be in Paris: the moral credit towards the new President of the Republic for the electoral support he provided will allow Christian Estrosi to have an influence on the dossiers that interest him.
Is his return to a local political perimeter a good choice? In a “glocal” world, the control of the “local” pillar is a guarantee of power, especially since the territory, in turn, cannot be relocated!
