Living in Nice for several years now, Gaël Nofri has been immersed in politics from an early age. Today he is close to Jacques Peyrat and Charles Pasqua, his two mentors, and, like all people from Nice, is preparing for the municipal joust that will take place in 2008.
Therefore, an interview with a young Max Gallo who dreams of walking in his elder’s footsteps.
Nice Premium: Gaël Nofri, you are releasing a book titled “Three Reforms for a Farewell”. What are these reforms, and what is this farewell?
Gaël Nofri: Yes! The title remains enigmatic…
In reality, the three reforms in question are constitutional changes adopted by the Congress of Versailles on February 19 last year. They relate to the definitive abolition of the death penalty, the new criminal status of the head of state, and the future of the electoral body of New Caledonia. These are three major upheavals for our institutions that were decided by President Jacques Chirac in accordance with the policy he intended to implement during his twelve years. Without any consultation with the people, it was then about completing, under his term, the profound modification of the supreme norm modified fifteen times. The farewell is, therefore, not only that of a man, Jacques Chirac, but also, hopefully, that of an era, that of the modification and denaturation of the Gaullist Constitution. Reforms are not ruptures.
NP: Why a book on Jacques Chirac’s mandate and what feelings did he inspire in you?
GN: It’s not so much a book about Jacques Chirac that I wrote, but rather a warning against the drifts of certain political and institutional choices. In the end, if Jacques Chirac’s mandate is concluding, the parliamentarians who voted for these changes are still largely present.
It’s not just a look back, it’s also an appreciation of texts still in force, a message to all those who, in the times to come, might be tempted by “new institutional revolutions”.
NP: A book often leads to another. Do you already know the subject of the next one?
GN: There is no next book planned at this time. However, if this one is well received, I will consider a future publication. Writing is not the problem: I write all the time, even when I’m not communicating.
Regarding the subject, I might perhaps address a less technical aspect, such as the meaning I give to my political engagement, the reasons for my love for France, my discovery of Nice and the French Riviera, the Mediterranean issue.
NP: Do you think Jacques Chirac was a key to the last UMP landslide in the presidential and legislative elections?
GN: I’m not convinced that Jacques Chirac weighed much in determining the current majority. It’s because Nicolas Sarkozy managed to build his campaign on themes dear to the French, on his personal charisma, and his ability to lead the People of the Right, as well as to gather beyond divisions around the idea of the Nation, that he won the presidential elections. Now the challenge is to not disappoint the many sometimes contradictory expectations…
Regarding the legislative elections, the victory of the presidential majority, the excellent results of the UMP in the first round, are obviously explained by the establishment of the five-year term. Giving a majority to the head of state for the duration of his mandate, not to contradict oneself less than a month after the election, the President of the Republic, are all arguments that have killed the parliamentary time.
The difference between the first and second rounds is explained, no doubt, by the gap that exists between the electoral program as we understood it and its application as the government will implement it.
NP: How do you analyze the first weeks of the Head of State and his government?
GN: I notice that the head of state and his team quickly got to work to find ways to implement the commitments on which they were elected.
I think this was necessary if we do not want to disappoint the immense human tide of all those who have given them their trust, and beyond those who have overwhelmingly expressed themselves in the presidential elections. The last election, that of June 17, also alerts us to this risk.
However, I cannot help but notice, to be honest, that already serious divergences exist, both domestically and internationally. The problems are posed…
The main question remains that relating to the Treaty establishing a Constitution for Europe. Whatever its name or the exact content, it is unimaginable that such a provision— which would once again renounce parts of our sovereignty—would not be subject to any referendum consultation.
NP: You are one of the many Corsicans settled in Nice and on the French Riviera. What is your view on the relations between the French State and the Isle of Beauty? What would, in your opinion, be the conditions to eradicate violence, corruption, and terrorism in Corsica?
GN: We are actually addressing several questions in one. The history of Corsica is that of an island often conquered, pillaged, or exploited by the various powers of the Mediterranean Basin; its relations with “the continents” thus follow southern geopolitics. However, Corsica has never exchanged, has never found a way to build with any of the powers that had invaded it.
In this respect, the initial relations between Corsica and the Kingdom of France did not start much differently. However, by a twist of history, when in 1769 the French Army definitively overcame the separatist troops and thus conquered Corsica, the same year Napoleon Bonaparte was born. From that moment, the history of Corsica and France, the history of Corsica in France, and the history of Corsicans in the service of France would be an exchange and a perpetual common advance. This was the case under the Empires, of course, but also in high administration and the colonies, then, in the Resistance and within the Gaullist movements. There is thus an anachronism expressed through all these separatist tendencies.
To eradicate terrorism, violence, and irredentism in Corsica, it is first necessary to ensure respect for the Law, to re-establish the rule of law, and no longer distribute amnesties to the enemies of the Republic.
It is then necessary, and perhaps especially, to give the island the economic means for its development:
– Transport and tourism infrastructures,
– Development of remarkable natural and cultural sites,
– Modification of the coastal law, which has become a real obstacle for the island,
– Control from start to finish of the use of public funds.
Then, and only then, should come the time for institutional reforms to limit the number of structures (abolition of double departmentalization) and change the mode of election for territorial councils (to limit the influence certain local bigwigs have on Corsican public life).
NP: You have been close to Charles Pasqua for many years. How did this collaboration begin?
GN: My political engagement is indeed linked to the person of Charles Pasqua. It was in 1999 that I understood, with the victory of the sovereigntist lists of the RPF over those of the RPR, that this was how one could express the love one has for one’s country, the will to defend it and to see it managed according to the ambitions one has for it. With hindsight, I regret nothing of my commitment to the RPF—I am still a member.
Within the Union for Europe of the Nations group, I know that Charles Pasqua, the last French President of a European parliamentary group, worked in favor of a Europe of nations, of cooperations, respectful of peoples and identities.
The victory of Nicolas Sarkozy shows on many points that Charles Pasqua was right: the posture adopted by the President of the Republic during these elections repeatedly took up (with the notable exception of European construction) the Gaullist discourse of the popular and republican right held by Charles Pasqua. The very good score achieved by Nicolas Sarkozy is also explained, no doubt, by the fact that he implemented Charles Pasqua’s call in 1988: the concerns of the National Front electorate and those expressed by our voters are not so far apart. From posture and discourse to acts, it now remains to implement all this…
NP: The municipal elections are approaching fast. Do you already know which list you will be participating with in this campaign?
GN: I do not yet know the data of the election, like everyone else I await them…
It is evident that in my eyes the excellent financial and modernizing record of Jacques Peyrat’s action will count. The Mayor has announced his intention to run again. After the demonstration at Place Masséna that gathered several thousand of our fellow citizens from Nice, without distinction of affiliation, around a common work, no one doubts any longer that Jacques Peyrat is today the symbol of a winning Nice!
Nice, a city of traditions, character, and identity, discovered then one of the achievements that, from today, are intended to define our city for the twenty-first century. From the tram, the doubling of the South Urban Highway, the National Regional Conservatory, the renovation of the city’s water collectors, the Palais Nikaïa, the new Place Masséna, the Louis Nucèra National Library, the development of Rauba Capeu… and tomorrow, with the new Town Hall, the great stadium, and the future tram lines, a modern, coherent, dynamic, and competitive city is being built.
From the two successive mandates of Jacques Peyrat, since 1995, was born a record in line with his commitments: a debt and taxation contained without compromising the necessary march forward of the capital of the French Riviera.
From 1995 to 2001, most of his efforts focused on the sanitation of municipal finances, finances that he found in a calamitous situation upon his arrival, after five years of municipal power vacuum. At the same time, he managed to maintain and even significantly reduce local tax rates. Then, in the current mandate, without ever betraying his past commitments, he has worked in favor of a policy of major works, which has certainly changed our habits and even caused inconvenience, but whose necessity cannot decently be contested. However, work remains to be completed, the new town hall at Place Charles de Gaulle must be built to revitalize the Libération-Malausséna district and expand the center of Nice from the Old Town to the heart of our city’s activities. The great stadium, tram lines 2 and 3, and perhaps also the Court of Appeal, not to mention the new prison, also remain to be implemented.
This ambition for renovation and improvement must now be accompanied by a third time, that of proximity and reappropriation by the people of Nice of their urban space. More than ever, the political values on which he was elected, with the municipal majority of the Republican Agreement and thanks to which he was able to pursue a constructive policy for Nice, find their legitimacy in the results of the last presidential and legislative elections: it is in unity, gathering, overcoming political divisions, and personal equations that victory will be found because that is more than ever what our fellow citizens expect.
It is therefore before them, in light of the work accomplished, with the pride of not having failed in their duty, and the will to associate new wills for progress with the Municipal Action that any future candidacy must be considered. In total opposition with those who were tempted by renunciation and frilosity, against those also who preach division instead of seeking to build unity, I intend to be present during this election.
NP: Christian Estrosi, candidate for the Mayor of Nice. What do you think?
GN: Christian Estrosi has been appointed Secretary of State for Overseas Territories and the Sea by the head of state, thus ensuring an important mission for France in Paris (our country remains indeed the 3rd international maritime area); his presence in the Government is an asset for the French Riviera in general, and Nice in particular.
His presidency of the General Council should help Nice to federate around it the entire department of Alpes-Maritimes.
In serving Nice by other means, I do not imagine that Christian Estrosi could run for Mayor of Nice, a position that requires constant attention, which precludes, in my opinion, any ministerial ambition from the outset. My more general conviction, which is not attached to a particular person, knows that the risk lies in a candidacy of division. Christian Estrosi knows this, and I have no doubt that he intends to actively support the desire for unity and gathering manifested by Jacques Peyrat.
It is up to the legitimate candidate to compose an independent list of unity and gathering in the service of Nice and the people of Nice. The legitimacy of this candidate can be found neither in the investiture of this or that party, nor in the willingness of this or that individual ambition. It is both popular and superior because it is appreciated in the context of the history and current events of Nice.
NP: Finally, what are Gaël Nofri’s upcoming projects in Nice?
GN: Projects… no, I don’t really know… I’m not really a man who decides on projects too far in advance, I’m not a fan of “cursus honorum”. Now in the short term yes, probably…
To weigh in Nice on the occasion of the upcoming municipal elections, to invest in favor of the project Nice European Capital of Culture, for the establishment of a Court of Appeal in Nice within the framework of a new division of the map… To work also, why not, to raise awareness of the importance of the Mediterranean issue, whether in terms of civilizations, peace, development, urbanization of the coast, or environmental protection.
But, in reality, we will see all this, it is also necessary to let events come, to accept to integrate the realities of the moment into the project that one would like to implement.
