He had achieved a feat in 2015: removing the Baylet clan from the presidency of the departmental council of Tarn-et-Garonne after 45 years of reign. Christian Astruc, himself a former member of the Left Radical Party (PRG) supported by elected officials from the center and the right, has been the favorite target of an opposition with several faces for six years who wants to take control. And Jean-Michel Baylet, who has never digested, wants “wash away the affront“.
OK Corral atmosphere for six years
Let’s first set the context to fully understand the Tarn-et-Garonnais mic-mac. In 2015, Christian Astruc former departmental councilor in the Baylet majority and president of the Agriculture commission, becomes president of the departmental council of Tarn-et-Garonne thanks, let us summarize it thus, to Brigitte Barèges the LR mayor of Montauban (since dismissed from his functions) and to the ex-PRG senator Yvon Collin, enemy juror of Jean-Michel Baylet (also since condemned) who manage to overturn a canton. Jean-Michel Baylet, after 30 years in power, took a long time to see the maneuver, and finally gave up running for the presidency at the very last moment, leaving it to the PRG mayor of Campsas, Marie-Claude Nègre, to lose.
Christian Astruc gradually became part of a dogma “Ni Baylet, Ni Barèges”, because the farmer also got angry very quickly with the mayor of Montauban and two LR advisers, all three in the opposition. Thus we find in Tarn-et-Garonne, elected Republicans with the president of the Department, and elected against him. So it is with a majority holding on to a thread (16 elected out of 30) that Christian Astruc governs, with an iron fist, he who does not accept votes by secret ballot.
The left can take the reins, the RN make its entry
In June 2021, the equation has to be redone with about half of the elected officials who do not represent themselves. The PRG and the PS form an alliance in a good number of cantons. But we will also sometimes see communists confront other left forces. This is another peculiarity of 82, the regional agreement which sees the Communists forming pairs with Socialists or PRGs, does not necessarily hold here.
The National gathering which until then has never pushed the door of the Department could well enter, with its last results in the last elections in the cantons between Toulouse and Montauban. And thanks to the young mayor of Moissac, Romain Lopez candidate in his canton, and who should not have trouble winning.
Other personalities present themselves in the departmental elections of Tarn-et-Garonne as the leader of the Socialist deputies in the National Assembly, Valérie Rabault in the canton of Caussade. It is rumored that Senator LR François Bonhomme could compete with the parliamentarian, who whatever happens will not run for the presidency.
But the “Mobilized”, this coalition of elected right and center members behind Christian Astruc, could have a hard time in the canton of the outgoing president. Christian Astruc will have to beat at home around Castelsarrasin the PRG Jean-Paul Terenne, mayor of Donzac near Valence d’Agen, beaten very little during the senatorial elections last September.
Jean-Michel Baylet the return?
Mathematically, anything is possible in Tarn-et-Garonne, especially the overthrow of Christian Astruc believes the left. Remains to know who to install as president in the “third round” in case of victory PRG-PS. For the PRG, very powerful on its favorite land, there is no doubt. It is the Boss who must be put back in his place. “There is no one else who does not have the stature, the experience and the record of Jean-Michel Baylet“, explains the Montalbanais José Gonzales. The former minister can indeed count on the unfailing loyalty of elected officials and PRG candidates.
The socialists expect “evaluate the balances“on the evening of the second round. Dominique Sardeing, leader of the elected PS in the Department has never made a secret of it. She is not” friend “with Jean-Michel Baylet, she does not dream of putting him back on his throne. 74 years old, the boss of La Dépêche du Midi headed the Department for 30 years, following his mother who headed it for 15 years herself. The mayor of Valence d’Agen has also had to deal in recent months with an accusation of rape and sexual assault in the early 80s.
But the councilor of the canton of Montech and her socialist colleagues will not oppose thestrong man of Tarn-et-Garonne, lucidity obliges. The PRG is a historical ideological ally of the PS, the PRG candidates are more numerous. And during the Baylet presidency, says Dominique Sardeing, “we could work, there was respect for elected officials, exchanges, even conviviality“.
The departmental elections take place at the same time as the regional ones, on Sunday June 20 and 27.
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