Nice Premium: What are your initial reactions following the presentation of the presidential pact by Ségolène Royal?
Nathalie Audin: I had the pleasure of attending this great event. It undoubtedly marks the true starting point of the campaign. Today, we have one hundred measures of total coherence… and even more so because these proposals have been submitted to the discussion of citizens who were willing to participate in various debates organized across the national territory. In my view, only Ségolène Royal can claim this effective encounter with the French people. As a result, it does not surprise us, we socialists, that Ségolène Royal’s program is perfectly in harmony with the project we voted for in June 2006.
I would also like to emphasize the remarkable speech by François Hollande who point by point dismantled the inconsistencies of Nicolas Sarkozy’s neoliberal and conservative proposals when he claims to serve “the workers” or the suffering people. He also highlighted the indecency of the same Sarkozy drawing from the cultural heritage of the left by quoting Jaurès or Blum while his record as minister in the last two governments clearly positions him as an ultra-liberal disregarding the necessary regulations of wild capitalism.
Today, the battle of the “experts” rages on to determine who between Ségolène Royal or Nicolas Sarkozy would present the best program in terms of quality/price… Besides the absurdity of such a count, it is appropriate to position Ségolène Royal’s program in a global logic… 50 billion euros say some… indeed… but 50 billion financed by a boost in growth, by an improvement in purchasing power, and by mastering debt.
50 billion they say… over how many budget exercises?…
Finally, 50 billion for what?… by creating a service for young children, by increasing the amount of small pensions, by proposing an autonomy allowance for the young, Ségolène Royal proposes “a pact for the future” from early childhood to seniors…
Ségolène Royal invests in social issues because she knows that it’s also the economic investment of tomorrow. She has the political discourse of someone who masters economic mechanisms. A true social-democratic program.
Patrick Allemand: We were eagerly awaiting this presentation and it is safe to say that Ségolène did not disappoint. I was in the hall on Sunday and personally, I had never experienced such an atmosphere.
She managed to synthesize the socialist project and the feedback from participatory debates, without renouncing her positions on the school map or the management of delinquents. Everyone said that the exercise would be very perilous, if not impossible, and it turned out to be quite the opposite, she drew a new strength from it.
The Villepinte speech truly marks the beginning of our campaign and it promises to be exceptional. The participatory phase may have seemed a bit long for some of us who were eager to confront the right, but it was necessary to enrich our program and to establish direct contact with voters who do not attend traditional political meetings. Today, we are in battle order and we have a program that is both in agreement with our principles and with the expectations of the French. It is now up to us to convince, campaigning relentlessly until May 6th.
