Cantonal Elections 2011. Statement by Jacques Victor (Gathering of Leftist and Citizen Forces – Communists, Socialists, Environmentalists, Republicans): The Scenes of an Inauguration: Nuisances and Political Indigence

“Everyone knows that election campaigns are conducive to demagogy and verbal excesses, but I always find it distressing to see some people lowering themselves to speeches that do not honor political debate.
The statements made during the inauguration of the office, on Smolett Street, of the candidate from the SARKOZY-ESTROSI-CIOTTI trio, both for the accumulation of falsehoods and contradictions, are a part of this lamentable drift.
When the President of the General Council brings back the narrative of “Anti-France,” a sad refrain that recalls dark periods of our history, reproaching me for my battles alongside the weakest, it is the vice paying tribute to virtue because these battles represent, for me, what forms the identity of France, which is notably inscribed in three words that adorn the facades of the Republic’s buildings—Liberty, Equality, Fraternity—that the President of the General Council seems to have forgotten.
Because if we voted against the General Council’s Budget, it’s because it extends the local policy of SARKOZY that enrages so many of our fellow citizens. Reduction of aid to families, collapse of investment, be it in schools, roads, or housing, with everything this could mean in terms of job losses in all local SMEs, but added difficulties for families, especially the most modest ones.
Must it be that their difficulty in presenting concrete responses to the residents of our neighborhoods and the fear of a poor result for their candidate are such that they let themselves fall into electoralist grandstanding? Given by people whose political paths change according to the interests of the moment, from ROSSINI to BAUS and including GALY, who have tried on many jackets only to sometimes be caught out in the process. An evening synonymous with disruption for local residents with the street blocked to make way for guests coming from all over to applaud and a sound system at full blast, as if the volume could mask political poverty!
To maintain a space of resistance and freedom in this 3rd district is to bring together as widely as possible around a local representative attentive to the needs of the residents and who brings forward initiatives, for example, for the Peugeot garage in Saint-Roch. It is this proximity to the district’s residents and their listening that led me to resolutely oppose alongside them the handing over by the municipality of the Constanzo Center to a notorious developer so that this place retains its social vocation. Not to mention the preservation of Riquier station, the rescue of numerous trees promised to be felled by the City Hall of Nice, from Vauban to Place Saint-Roch.
A better understanding of the files would prevent their candidate from noticing “that one in two people questions us about security issues,” a situation that only illustrates the failure of the security drift of their mentors, from SARKOZY to ESTROSI to CIOTTI, since security is primarily the responsibility of the State and incidentally of a Mayor who keeps boasting about the multiplication of cameras. One must believe they are more useful for issuing parking tickets than protecting citizens, given the sentiment they express.
In any case, I am honored to carry a different conception of politics, closer to the residents and their needs and away from political arguments and “catchphrases!”