This one invites her to “not give up on the socialists.” That one urges her to “continue the fight for more justice.” Another asserts that he voted for her. This woman just wants to do her shopping, but the seller is too busy recounting to Ségolène Royal her dissatisfaction with the declining purchasing power. It is in a certain fervor that the disappointed presidential candidate of last spring, surrounded by the socialist head of the list for the Nice city council Patrick Allemand and a group of sympathizers and curious onlookers, began her Nice stopover on her tour of France for the socialist lists on Saturday morning.
For nearly an hour, the former socialist candidate, not very talkative but often addressed, walked down the Libération market. A nod? It is certainly located right in the “mayor’s district,” the successive electoral ground of Médecin, father and son, Jean-Paul Baréty, and Jacques Peyrat. A sector carefully patrolled by activists from all groups, since along the way, the procession crossed paths with the troops of Patrick Mottard and then Christian Estrosi, armed to the teeth with pamphlets promoting their candidates. “All fair in love and war,” smiled a follower of “Ségo,” who nevertheless feared Patrick Mottard “might come and try to get a photo of himself shaking her hand.” A vain apprehension.
Upon arriving at Malausséna Avenue, the cohort caught a tram to Place Masséna, to recall that the left was not opposed to the principle. At the tram’s arrival, by the way, the president of the Poitou-Charentes region could meet… Jacques Peyrat’s activists, also with their arms full of pamphlets.
“Such a mess…”
But it is indeed a socialist committee that welcomes her at the Jacques-Médecin forum, where the sound system blares “Changez d’air,” the campaign refrain of Patrick Allemand composed and performed by two of his running mates, Louis Pastorelli (Nux Vomica) and Sophie Duez. The actress who even hums it into the microphone when Ségolène Royal, barely arrived, already warmly cheered, takes over to call for “a change of era. To put serious officials in charge, who really take care of our problems.” The same concerns surface: rising prices, the cost of gasoline, small pensions, the reduction of VAT, health co-pays, the tax shield, housing, the number one priority of the socialist program in Nice. Before talking outright about “a mess such as France has never known.”
Denouncing “cronyism and corruption of all kinds” in Nice, she demanded that “it must stop” and invited the people of Nice to “trust the diverse energies of the left and progressive list, so that Nice can finally regain a sense of public morality, social justice, and economic efficiency.” “Mobilize!” she concluded in front of an audience won over to her cause and in full effervescence. An effervescence that is giving ideas to the Nice left. A bigwig said in private: “Two months ago, we were wondering how to make a unity list. Today, we feel a rejection of the right and a new momentum behind us. We can win.”
