The information relayed by the loyal local gazette did not sit well with Patrick Allemand, who was quick to respond. The former Vice-President under Michel Vauzelle in charge of the economy does not accept this “false” truth: defeated at the polls, yes, but “duped,” no!
There he is, taking up his pen to assert “his” truth: “In fact, he didn’t bring back a single extra cent! It is yet another PR stunt.”
In reality, if all it took was a trip to Brussels and a visit to the offices to bring back such a significant budget, it would be wise to get a weekly subscription on the direct flight to the European capital.
“Simply because the operational programs for the current period were signed, negotiated, and deliberated under Michel Vauzelle’s era, and the money that Mr. Estrosi is about to spend today, of which I am happy for the PACA region, is the money I went to get from Europe with the directors with whom I had the pleasure of working!” declares Patrick Allemand.
Indeed, the funds presented in the press article — 60 million euros of FEDER, 26 million euros of FSE, 125 million euros of FEDER, and 7 million euros of POIA for the Alpine massif — were not secured in less than an hour by Mr. Estrosi but are the result of two years of work and negotiations that the former official conducted with Brussels in 2014 and 2015, under Michel Vauzelle’s leadership, and correspond to the annual amount of aid obtained.
“Anyone with a minimum of common sense and understanding of public accounting realizes very well that such calls for projects cannot be set up in five minutes at the corner of a table and that the funds available today for 2016 weren’t decided yesterday but are exactly those that I resolved in the last quarter of 2015 before we lost the region,” explains the former first vice-president.
The 400 regional actors working with Europe, who were present at the Villa Méditerranée when we presented the whole scheme, the financial packages, as well as the strategic choices with Michel Vauzelle, must be disbelieving this morning.
