The public vows ceremony was celebrated last night at the Acropolis Palace with the pomp of great occasions: in the presence of Mr. Prefect—silent as his role requires—, the President of the Regional Council Renaud Muselier—Momo expressed himself well with his inimitable style—it was “sold out”!
On stage, the army: infantry, cavalry, artillery, senior officers, some colonels. Mayors and municipal, departmental, regional, national parliamentarians (each will recognize themselves in their rank and assign themselves their grade) all of strict “estrosian” observance, plus a few guests for protocol reasons. Absent, it goes without saying, were the “ciottists” elected officials, starting with the President of the Departmental Council Charles-Ange Ginésy.
In the hall, the economic, associative, cultural, and sports sectors, namely all those who for one reason or another do not want to end up on the “blacklist.”
Then the public, numerous, estimated at more than 2,000 people.
Supported by propaganda films, the two speakers, who displayed a solid understanding, took turns at the microphone to deliver republican and unifying speeches.
Renaud Muselier, with the halo for the excellent initiative of the collection for the police (1.5 million euros), praised the Region which he would place at the heart of public action, action (“a program over 3 years with a 20-year vision”) and successes (the very recent agreement with the SNCF) and recalled the support for territories (120 million euros to the Alpes-Maritimes).
Regarding the national situation and this particular moment, he expressed a vibrant defense of representative democracy as opposed to the so-called participatory democracy, of which, beyond its fine principles, we see—nowadays—some applications that are not precisely encouraging!
In his triple role as Deputy President of the Region, President of the Metropolis, and Mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi played the unifier through a call: “put collective intelligence at the service of defending the interests of the region and the territory” and “act for the public good.”
The Mayor of Nice and President of the Metropolis—he was indeed speaking on behalf of these two entities—took the opportunity to return to the Great National Debate that has been underway for a few days and will continue for a few weeks: “we, the elected representatives of the territories, will formulate numerous proposals to improve the daily lives of all French people, because it is us who truly share their daily lives, closest on the ground” before proposing “the only condition that will make this debate a success is that at its end, the major economic, social, institutional issues that will have been discussed be submitted to the sovereign people by way of referendum.”
Regarding the “yellow vests” issue, he was ambivalent: on the positive side, “the will of the people is this will that the Yellow Vests tried to implement,” followed by the negative side, “I condemn those who deviated it, etc.”
For Christian Estrosi, it was also an occasion to speak and speak well of “his” city (Nice) and his “baby” (the Metropolis). He did not hold back with words that exuded pride: “we have made Nice an attractive city, which attracts more and more businesses and visitors and produces more and more resources”; “we have founded a Metropolis, stable, respectful, balanced, united, innovative.”
If the wishes are expressed for the coming year, “2019 will be the year of the accomplishments of this long march,” the conclusion could not escape a review of the 10 years of his term as Mayor of Nice, “the year where everything we imagined in 2008 comes into place.”
In several parts of his speech, Christian Estrosi clearly hinted that he would be a candidate for his own succession in the municipal elections in 2020.
To his potential rival, Eric Ciotti, who on the occasion of his own wishes had sharply accused him of heterodoxy in relation to the political line of Les Républicains, he sent (without naming him) a clear response: “Yes, I am free, more and more, 2019 will confirm it to you, and too bad for those who are bothered by my freedom!”
