The official campaign opened this Monday, November 23, in a painful context that tests the fundamental values of our Republic. The floor is given to Sophie Camard, EE-LV candidate.
The Cooperative Region represents the only possible optimistic future for our region.
We will not wait for a legitimist upsurge of citizens in the ballot boxes in favor of the current government. We propose a regional, social, ecological, and citizen-based project, in the face of military escalations, faced with right and far-right candidates who exploit the tragedy of the attacks and reveal their true faces.
Mr. Estrosi never keeps his composure. While the State cuts revenues for the Regions, he now proposes that the Region become the cash register of the State for its sovereign competencies (police, prison, etc.). He thus clearly shows that education, training, economy, sustainable territorial planning, environment—key competencies of the Region—will be profoundly called into question if he is elected.
As for Marion Maréchal Le Pen, she openly displays her disdain for republican values. By opposing Catholics—of whom she claims to be one—and Muslims, she divides citizens, uses a vocabulary of religious war, and challenges secularism. After her proposal of a “Provençal Puy du Fou,” Ms. Maréchal Le Pen calls for a “constructive chouannerie” (Montfavet speech, November 20, 2015).
She reveals her royalist and traditionalist ideas, opposes the French Revolution, therefore the French flag, therefore the Marseillaise. She dares to declare all this… in the context we know, and in Provence Alpes Côte d’Azur, which is precisely the land of the Marseillaise, a republican land, a land welcoming diverse populations born in Provence but also from the North and the South, from Paris, Italy, Algeria, Armenia, Comoros…
Ms. Maréchal Le Pen mocks France as well as the History and memories of the Region she claims to preside over. Her references to Frédéric Mistral, who does not deserve such dishonor, only serve to justify a conception of culture frozen in a nostalgic folklore, opposed to what makes Occitan culture and the legacy of the troubadours vibrant. What will happen in our high schools if such “identity” manipulators were to take power in our Region?
It will not be said that in such a context, no one stood up to express their indignation, to call for reason, for a surge of clarity and free thinking.
Faced with Marion, we will be Marianne! Let’s vote and call to vote for a Cooperative Region!
