Nice-premium: Let’s start with the tramway line 2. Is the project taking too long for your liking?
Patrick Allemand: Line 2 was the priority in our program at Changer d’ère. Christian Estrosi mentioned the project little during the municipal campaign. Yet, the majority of car travel in Nice is on the east-west axis: that represents 140,000 trips per day. It is essential to provide an alternative means of transport and to complete what Jacques Peyrat started.
NP: How does the left’s project differ from that of the majority team in the municipal council?
PA: We agree on the route up to Phoenix Park: that’s where our paths diverge. The right wants to make a connection with the airport. At Changer d’ère, we want the line to pass through the administrative center, the Nikaïa, and the west stadium, three very attractive poles in terms of travel. This will help avoid traffic jams on the expressway on concert nights and will be appreciated by the thousands of employees and customers who go to CADAM daily. Not to mention the benefit for school transportation, which will be altered. We also emphasize that line 2 should pass through Les Moulins, the last working-class neighborhood in Nice not served by the tramway.
NP: What about the extension of line 1?
PA: In fact, this project should start before the construction of line 2. It is the most advanced: servicing Ariane is very important to me. The tramway should be the link between the center and the outskirts of Nice.
NP: Let’s return to the recent municipal elections. The left ran a very good campaign but did not succeed in taking the city hall. How have you digested this defeat?
PA: We took it philosophically. In politics, there are projects, men, women, and timing. The people of Nice did not opt for a real change this time. They will be able to do so in the next elections. At least, the people of Nice now know that a credible opposition exists on the left. During this term, we have yet to build this opposition.
NP: Will you handle this differently than your predecessor, Patrick Mottard?
PA: We must organize determined, responsible, and constructive opposition. We must not linger in sterile protest or obstruction. On the contrary, we must be present wherever possible: in the tourism society, OPAM, municipal credit, etc. Our goal is to create a team capable of managing the future.
NP: Speaking of Patrick Mottard, a letter was recently sent to socialist activists in the central and northern sections of Nice, asking them to “condemn the political approach initiated by Patrick Mottard” and to recognize “Patrick Allemand as the representative of the socialist party on the municipal council.” Is the situation justifying such an approach?
PA: I did not initiate the letter. It was a decision of the federal office. Former close associates of Patrick Mottard pushed for this clarification. The situation was very complicated. The exclusion of Patrick Mottard was pronounced by the national office of the socialist party. And an exclusion is never pronounced happily. Now that the main leaders have been excluded from the party, it is time to rebuild the PS in these areas, with new personalities.
NP: Let’s move on to the national level: do you believe that the Socialist Party Congress, which will take place in the fall, will help to restart the machine?
PA: I don’t know if it will revive the party. It is an extremely complex congress, polluted by the presidential debate. What we need today is to determine a clear political direction; and this Congress is not on that path. There are unusual, haphazard groupings between people who have only one goal: to block Ségolène Royal. If she listened to me, she would refuse to take up the position of the party’s first secretary. With more than 16 million votes she received in the presidential elections, she already holds her legitimacy. If she renounced her candidacy for the head of the party, we would see that all the coalitions of circumstance would shatter.
