Nice Premium: JC Picard, the municipal elections are fast approaching. What will be the position of the Left Radical Party in Nice?
It is known! On October 23, the left-wing radicals launched, with their partners, a call for a permanent union to extend, at the local level, the dynamic of national unity created during the presidential and legislative elections…
Moreover, since June 2004, the PRG and MEI have formed the “Ensemble Autrement” collective for the upcoming municipal elections in Nice. It aims to be or to participate in a gathering platform.
We have always thought that union would not necessarily come from the major political parties and that it could come from the smaller ones…
I believe, therefore, that the conditions are now met to form, on the left, the great coalition everyone dreams of!
NP: Will you be a candidate in the municipal elections in Nice?
Absolutely! I had announced it and I have not changed my mind. I will be present in this election, either as the leader of the left radicals on a broad coalition list, or, if really necessary, at the head of a specific list.
NP: Do you not think that only a great union of the Nice left, even with the MoDem, can swing the city to the left?
Obviously… but not only! In addition to my friends from the MRC, we also need to gather the ecologists (Greens, MEI, and Cap 21) and open up to personalities from the political, professional, sports, cultural, and associative world. I note that the Modem activists are rather young and aspire to new political practices… We should be able to agree!
NP: The Nice PS will, it seems, have to choose between one of the two Patricks. How do you analyze this primary that is currently making a big noise within the local PS?
At the PRG, we are fortunate to have neither factions nor rivalries… This is not to involve ourselves in the problems of others!
Nevertheless, I understood that the two candidates for the nomination wanted, this time, to make a fairly open list; I deduce that they plan to make a list very different from those presented in the 2001 municipal or 2004 regional elections. Since this is what I have always advocated, I am pleased.
In any case, I find that it is not good to limit the debate to the question of the lead candidate… This is a multi-member election where 68 people will be needed behind the first. In a city of 350,000 inhabitants, the mayor must be able to rely on devoted, competent, and available deputies.
In short, the quality of their team is more important than the name of the lead candidate.
NP: Jacques Peyrat, Christian Estrosi, Rudy Salles… Do you have any idea who the future right-wing candidate invested by the UMP will be?
I am among those who do not believe in the candidacy of Jacques Peyrat:
He will be 77 years old in 2008, he is completely weighed down by the “affairs,” and he is abandoned by most of the elected officials in his own camp.
And I obviously do not believe in a candidacy of Rudy Salles who is, today, completely discredited after his multiple reversals and changes of stance.
NP: What are the key themes of your program for the next municipal elections?
We set, as a prerequisite, the respect of political ethics, which means the adoption by elected officials of behavior that allows them to fulfill their role effectively: no accumulation of mandates and limitation of their renewal, rejection of professionalization of elected officials, renunciation of voting discipline, attendance at assemblies and commissions, etc.
We then propose a method based on active citizenship.
This implies, firstly, transparency of public action: all important documents (deliberations, orders, budgets, administrative accounts, minutes of the city council, etc.) must be easily accessible to citizens, particularly via the city’s website. Secondly, it requires genuine participatory democracy through neighborhood councils open to all residents (and not just to those who hold the party card in place!) and consultation procedures inspired by the “public debate” (i.e., led by an independent commission).
Our ultimate goal is not to satisfy the megalomania of this or that elected official – or the wife of an elected official! – but to work for the well-being of all residents.
Our priority will thus be to have efficient public transport, social housing for workers and the most disadvantaged, clean sidewalks, protected bike lanes, parks for children, sports fields for teenagers, halls for associations, nurseries for working women, specialized institutions for dependent people…
NP: Do you already have support and Nice personalities on your team?
Yes, but it is much too early to name names. What I can tell you is that those who know my friends will not be surprised….
NP: Finally, what will be your news in the coming weeks?
The PRG candidates for the municipal and cantonal elections, for the entire department, will be invested at our next General Assembly which will take place in September.
