It is known that the cantonal elections in the departmental territory, particularly in the 8 cantons of Nice to be renewed, will go beyond their original meaning: the mere election of councilors to the departmental institution. They will also serve as a test for the departmental majority led by two strong (and allied) men, Christian Estrosi and Eric Ciotti.
Therefore, confirmation or rejection of their policy are the true answers that political analysts expect from voters. In this context, everyone agrees to recognize the election in the 14th canton as the “mother of all battles,” where real political heavyweights from both the right and left will face off.
In this cast, one cannot help but attribute the role of baritone to the former mayor of the city, the rugged Jacques Peyrat, while the current incumbent Paul Cuturello cannot escape the role of tenor.
But who will be the soprano of the piece? Here comes the surprising entrance of Dominique Estrosi-Sassone, one of the best “voices” of the UMP, who will go to “reconquer” this Canton (composed of many neighborhoods, each with very different sociological characteristics and needs) after 18 years of her political party’s defeats to the National Front and the Socialist Party.
This was well worth an American-style inauguration (Podium outside headquarters, friends and supporters in the street with the roadway blocked, national anthem, and “Nissa la bella”), setting the tone for a campaign that will be metaphorically a knife-fight.
And what a surprise!
We knew her as a woman of substance, serious, sometimes stern and always dedicated. We discovered a true “warrior” ready for battle, willing to change from the allure of an undeniably charming lady to the militant stance of a nun for disadvantaged neighborhoods that “must regain hope and dignity,” as DES affirmed in her speech.
One cannot doubt the sincerity of this conversion, knowing the commitment of this woman of temperament and character (“steely” as defined by one of the mentors of the candidacy, the President of the General Council Eric Ciotti, “bad” claim those who know her well or simply “of” character as she claims?).
Declaring her candidacy as a locally engaged elected representative, attentive to the people of the canton, and a staunch defender of the neighborhoods’ issues and their instances in front of the City’s and the Department’s powers, DES has crossed once and for all the barrier that confined her to the sometimes too reductive role of “her father’s daughter” who was a baron of medicinal circles and the wife of her (ex-) husband known for his prestigious political career. But for everyone comes the moment to soar on their own and to have the ambition to be known and recognized only by their own name.
So, DES donned the combat helmet and went to battle to conquer this elected position which would be a personal consecration and would make her the “queen” of this canton, which will be the “heart of development” of the Nice of the future (as Christian Estrosi reminded during his speech), a territory stretching from the airport to the MIN area north of the Plaine du Var, passing through the intermodal station, the Administrative Center, the OIN installations, the Grand Stade, and the adjacent Eco-neighborhood; from the sea (with the commercial port?) to the Saint-Isidore neighborhood, which will remain preserved from real estate speculation. Along with the ambitious renovation of Les Moulins neighborhood, which should regain a condition of a dignified place to live instead of the current ghetto cliché.
The battle will be fierce, blows will not be lacking, but DES intends to remain positive and optimistic. She knows she has good weapons to defend against her opponents and win the small battles that could give her this small war. Just as she knows herself capable, once elected, of abandoning her role as a warrior for the one that suits her best as “most illustrious queen,” as Zenobia was called in antiquity, but … of Nice-West and not Palmyra, attentive to her good people and loved by them. Because beneath the facade of the woman manager, one can easily guess there is a capital of empathy just waiting to be deployed.
But… ‘dimidium facti qui coepit habet’ (he who has begun is halfway done), Horace tells us in his Epistle!
