CÔTE-D'OR: René Lioret is the new departmental delegate of the National Rally

Head of the list in the municipal elections in Beaune in 2020, René Lioret today takes the head of the RN federation of Côte-d’Or. This Friday, January 8, he discussed his next missions including the constitution of pairs for the departmental elections.

A member of the National Front since 1986, René Lioret maintained his political commitment when the far-right party founded by Jean-Marie Le Pen became, in 2018, the National Rally chaired by Marine Le Pen. He is today the new departmental delegate of the party for the Côte-d’Or.

“This appointment to the post of departmental manager is for me an additional step in my political commitment within a movement” declared René Lioret this Friday, January 8, 2021. He succeeds Sylvie Beaulieu, who has become an associate of the mayor’s office of Perpignan Louis Aliot.

In a tense context, the party authorities preferred the Beaunois René Lioret to the Dijonnais Damien Cantin, candidate supported by the outgoing departmental delegate, who had led the list to the municipal elections in Dijon. “We are going to work together” indicates the new departmental manager, “our objective is to make this Côte-d’Or federation a success and, above all, to succeed in the upcoming elections which are therefore my first mission”.

In the wake of Pierre Jaboulet-Vercherre

Living near Beaune, René Lioret readily refers to the figure of Pierre Jaboulet-Vercherre, historical head of the Front National in Burgundy in the 1990s. At the time, René Lioret was a candidate in the regional elections of 1992 before continuing on municipal elections in Beaune in 1995.

Professionally, René Lioret was commercial director at Laboratoires Urgo. An activity that kept him away from the electoral process until 2015, when he presented himself with Delphine Schlegel in the canton of Arnay-le-Duc against the socialist pair Béatrice Moingeon-Hermary and Pierre Poillot who was elected. Legislative candidate in 2017 in the fifth constituency of Côte-d’Or, he faced the Walker Didier Paris who was elected. In March 2020, René Lioret confronted Alain Suguenot directly in Beaune but the RN list did not reach the second round.

Six “winnable” cantons in Côte-d’Or

Now retired, the new departmental delegate can devote himself to the preparation of the departmental elections and the constitution of pairs which will be validated by the national investiture commission. “We already have about ten” he says. The objective given by the regional manager Julien Odoul is for all the cantons to be provided in Côte-d’Or, as in all the departments of Bourgogne-Franche-Comté.

In 2015, the National Rally was present in the second round in sixteen cantons, including ten duels. For the next deadlines, several cantons appear “winnable”: Auxonne, Brazey-en-Plaine, Chenôve, Genlis and Dijon 6.

For his part, Julien Odoul is counting on “a ripple effect” between the departmental and regional elections, a simultaneity which could “annihilate the local establishment of outgoing departmental advisers”.

Another work of the federation in view of the elections: to beat the recall of the troops. After a historic peak of 1,400 members in the department, the number of up-to-date contributors is uncertain today. However, René Lioret believes that “the electoral period is always very good” for such an approach.

Jean-Christophe Tardivon