A friendly saying goes: “thinking badly is a sin, but it tells the truth.” As we had well understood, the Semiacs affair was nothing more than a pretext to settle a political dispute, by appearances.
In truth, we are still genuinely surprised by such dilettantism in the initiative of the former First Deputy towards the police and judicial authorities. He, a man of state decorum and high military training, should well know that respect for form and hierarchy is intrinsic to certain responsibilities.
How could he imagine that Christian Estrosi would overlook his initiative to protest against the Ministers of the Interior and Justice, despite the fact that these are the regular targets of his own political attacks! Everyone has their own turf.
Furthermore, making everything public through an interview published in Nice Matin without having informed him in advance… It was like handing over the stick to be beaten, just as, in another context and time, a certain other First Deputy “whom even left-wing people called Gilbert” had his posters plastered on the city walls, costing him his post.
The reason for this intervention? A “matter of honor” supposedly motivated the former First Deputy. But what is the dishonor of not being called as a witness in a case where he is only the President of the company in which the sole Director is under scrutiny?
Even if everyone tries to hide it with patches or heal it with ointments, the wound was something else, and when between the city’s chief magistrate and his first deputy, communication is by writing… Everything is said and understood!
Nothing in life is without a solution (except the initial and final act), and Benoit Kandel will certainly have a bright (or different?) future ahead of him than the political one. The person remains of great quality, even if, in this case, emotions outweighed the rational, which in politics is a significant flaw. Whether he continues in politics after his mandates seems, at this point, secondary.
Nonetheless, there is still bitterness in his words, and one can easily understand it. He could be the imaginary figure of what Argentine writer Eduardo Soriano called “hombre vertical.” But, how can we forget that this beautiful and significant phrase was accompanied by the definition: “sad, lonely, and final.”
Next Monday, at the Municipal Council, the page will be turned, and life will go on, but the episode has caused a thunderclap in the local political world. Hence, some reactions we offer you:
Patrick Allemand, Municipal and Metropolitan Councilor, President of the “Changer d’ère” and “Socialists, Greens and Republicans” groups
A new score settling within the municipality. It was an open secret; the entire Nice microcosm knew that the relationship between the Mayor and his First Deputy was no longer cordial.
In politics, there is a rule: when someone looks to get rid of you, avoid giving them the opportunity. That’s precisely what Benoit KANDEL did by giving this interview to Nice Matin yesterday.
It is undoubtedly difficult to keep an iconic Deputy responsible for security declaring to the press that the police lie and justice is off-track. But when it comes from a mayor who himself has launched a petition against the Minister of Justice, the official reason lacks credibility!
Beyond the SEMIACS case, about which I will not comment, it is indeed an internal political score-settling on the right. This scathing disavowal of the city hall’s number 2, in charge of the Mayor’s emblematic policy, security, is a thunderclap just months before the municipal elections. This improvisation driven by moods and this disorganization of municipal public security is, in any case, a bad signal to criminals in our city.
It is the symbol of the chaotic end of Christian ESTROSI’s reign, showing a growing nervousness. After Marouane BOULOUDHNINE, Jean-Auguste ICART, and Benoît KANDEL, suspended from their delegations, who will be next?
Marie-Christine Arnautu, candidate of the FN in the 2014 municipal elections
I want to react to the dismissal of the First Deputy of the City of Nice by Mr. Estrosi. The people of Nice are entitled to demand the real reasons for this sudden dismissal. However, this decision is proof of the instability of the municipal majority, the incoherence of Estrosi’s management, the Mayor’s poor record. It is just the beginning of the great Estrosian maneuvers approaching the municipal elections. It also disregards the judgment of the people of Nice, more than tired of arbitrary governance.
Jean-Christophe Picard, President of PRG 06
The cleanup is just beginning! As Christian Estrosi just launched a petition elegantly titled “Stop Taubira,” he withdraws his delegations from Benoit Kandel because the latter has questioned the police and… justice! You can’t make this up.
It must be said, in defense of the Mayor of Nice, that the First Deputy is also President of Semiacs, which has the particularity of having its director accused of harassment and sexual assault while its management is targeted by a complaint from Anticor 06.
What is certain is that the cleanup is just beginning! Indeed, a few months before the municipal elections, the recourse to dismissal is entirely beneficial for future candidate Estrosi: it allows him to get rid of his most cumbersome running mates while freeing up the necessary places for the traditional renewal of faces. There is no reason for it to stop…
In this context, let’s wager that the political future of Joseph Calza and Daniel Benchimol appears compromised, to say the least.
JEAN ICART Municipal Councilor, General Councilor
Diverted from his military career by Christian Estrosi, sinister processes sideline him from power. Poor city of Nice, which will once again suffer from this kind of practices!
Benoit Kandel dared to speak in the Semiacs affair, a right he was not put in a position to exercise. He is punished!
Gendarmerie colonel, the motto of his weapon should support him: “For the country, honor, and right.” Welcome to the club of the ousted!
Gaël Nofri, president of Génération Avenir
A few months from the polls, Christian Estrosi does not fear ridicule.
Removing his First Deputy for reasons as fallacious as those invoked fools no one: the Mayor is cleaning up his entourage in the hope of appearing at the March municipal elections, like a virgin on her wedding day, immaculately white.
The management of SEMIACS, roads, parking, and security are inseparable from the outgoing Mayor’s record. While some of Mr. Estrosi’s majority elected officials are currently facing serious legal proceedings and risk significant convictions, the chief magistrate of the city’s choice to keep them in place while removing the pariah of the day demonstrates once again that honesty, good management, and the interest of the people of Nice do not count among the values that influence the Mayor of Nice in his daily life.
This announcement ultimately sums up well the five and a half years of the mandate we have just lived: since this is the Prince’s will…
