Christian Estrosi, Eric Ciotti, Alain Juppé, and David Douillet gathered Wednesday evening at the Palais de la Méditerranée to announce the UMP’s wishes to its members and supporters in Nice.
The occasion was the UMP 06’s wishes to its activists, but in reality, we witnessed a pre-election meeting even though “candidate” Sarkozy is not yet one.
But all the honors went to Alain Juppé, to such an extent that one might wonder if the desire of the local “barons” gathered on stage and the audience in the hall was not to invest him with “this” candidacy instead of…
A breeze of the presidential campaign was blowing this Wednesday evening at the Palais de la Méditerranée. The mayor of Nice, Christian Estrosi, accompanied by Alain Juppé, Minister of Foreign Affairs, David Douillet, Minister of Sports, and Eric Ciotti, President of the General Council of the Alpes-Maritimes, presented the UMP’s wishes for the year 2012.
In front of an engaged audience (about 2000 activists and supporters), Christian Estrosi defended his record. A decrease in crime and burglary rates, launching major projects, the mayor of Nice exulted and announced for this year, “work multiplied by 1000 compared to 2011.” He admitted “unwavering support for the preparation of the 2012 election” where he will have “neither fear nor reluctance.” Throughout his speech, Christian Estrosi launched multiple attacks against his socialist opponents, whom he labeled as “sirens of surrender.”
A resolutely optimistic speech
A similar but more nuanced speech from Alain Juppé. The Minister of Foreign Affairs declared himself proud of Nicolas Sarkozy’s five-year term and highlighted the “numerous and beautiful reforms carried out since 2007. Never has France been so modernized as in this term.” Alain Juppé expressed optimism about the current economic situation: “The results for 2011 are a little better than we expected. We are on the right trajectory that will allow us to achieve a zero deficit in 2016 as the President of the Republic has committed.” Denouncing a “psychological crisis of confidence,” he stated that “we can and must have confidence in France’s chances.” He then announced that Nicolas Sarkozy would present on Sunday evening, during a televised speech, “a series of highly strong and ambitious measures to put France back on the path to growth.”
To close this campaign speech, Alain Juppé declared, with humor we did not know he had: “There’s no doubt, it’s Sarko we need!“
