Eric Ciotti chaired his last plenary session of the Alpes-Maritimes departmental council on Friday, September 1st.
Affected by the law on the non-accumulation of mandates and having chosen to remain a deputy, he will submit his resignation to the prefect. However, he will remain a simple departmental councilor (the law allows it) and will chair the majority group.
As widely expected, his succession will occur without problems, which was anticipated since the legislative elections: Charles-Ange Ginésy*, the current first vice-president of the department, did not run in the legislative elections to make way for Anne Satonnet, a loyal supporter of Eric Ciotti, but surprisingly, she was defeated by the mayor of Vence, Loïc Dombreval, a centrist turned “En Marche” supporter, of whom she was the first deputy.
Charles-Anges will take the reins of the Department on September 15th. Will he be the “free and independent” president, as presented by his predecessor, or will the latter continue to exercise de facto authority?
At 51, Eric Ciotti will become a player on the national political scene. A proponent of a hard right, he is a fervent supporter of Laurent Wauquiez’s candidacy for the presidency of LR, just as he was of François Fillon, Nicolas Sarkozy, François Fillon again, and François Baroin in the various electoral campaigns of recent years.
Given the negative results of each, one can only hope for better success in the upcoming one. In the event of Laurent Wauquiez’s success, he should assume significant responsibilities within the party.
During his lengthy speech following the announcement of his resignation, Eric Ciotti outlined a summary of his presidency that could only be commendable in his regard: “I feel the pride of having presided over the destinies of a great and beautiful community.”
These symbolic medals are the reduction of debt (from 1 billion to 800 million euros in stock), controlling operating costs (-800 territorial agents), and fiscal stability (no increase in transfer duties). This last point was an opportunity for him to remind, not without a polemical tone, the lack of 1.5 billion euros in state transfers since 2009.
The opposition (strongly in the minority) responded with measured criticism, limiting themselves to highlighting their opposing and antagonistic vision while acknowledging the fairness of relations with the future ex-president and a certain equity in his management.
Indeed, the balance of power was not conducive to anything other than constructive opposition (the vast majority of decisions are voted unanimously).
Marie-Christine Gourdon (socialist) was willing to remind: “We agreed on a vast majority of the issues, as long as these issues were built in the general interest of the populations and communities.”
Francis Tujague (communist) pointed out that the reduction of debt was achieved “at the cost of reducing social policies and the functioning of public services.”
In any case, Eric Ciotti had long been a true “boss” and shaped the management of the community in his way, using it as a lever for his political ascent.
He claims to be a man of the right: ‘I accept it. I’m not ashamed. I do not engage in the political circumlocutions of some correlated with media trends.” Could not be clearer than that…
He is rumored to have ambitions of eyeing the position of mayor of Nice, which would trigger a small “nuclear” war with Christian Estrosi, of whom he was “the” collaborator and ally before spreading his wings to eventually become his “rival.”
In fact, what divides them is no longer just the political line (Christian Estrosi was for François Fillon’s withdrawal from the presidential race while Eric Ciotti supported him fervently until the end; nor their positioning towards Emmanuel Macron, whom Christian Estrosi called to vote for in the second round while Eric Ciotti claimed to have voted blank; nor the vision of the future organization of politics, pragmatism for the mayor of Nice, ideology for the former departmental council president): no, the reason lies elsewhere, in personal relationships:
“The low blows from some of my local and national political friends were unexpected” – he stated, referring to an alleged boycott of his candidacy during the legislative elections this past June.
True or not, when the human aspect is no longer there…
