In the constituency of Montluçon, becoming a deputy is a challenge when you come from the ranks of the right. Daniel Dugléry broke his teeth there four times, and Jean Gravier (1993-1997) is an exception in the line of local parliamentarians.
Legislative 2022: Périssol (Moulins) and Kégelart (Montluçon) Republican candidates in Allier
A profile unlike Walkers
With Jean-Jacques Kégelart, it is a man in the shadows with a long career that the Republicans have chosen to take up this challenge. A profile at the antipodes of the deputies of La République en Marche, who has the feat of having been chief of staff to Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing for ten years. The right – quick to lead the amateur trial of the Walkers – makes it a strong argument for its candidacy. “He is brilliant, masters the files and knows the territory”, confides Romain Lefebvre, boss of the Republicans in the Allier, who does not elude his lack of notoriety.
BIOGRAPHY
May 26, 1958 Born in Paris.
1988 Chief of Staff to Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing at the Auvergne Regional Council.
1998 Deputy director general of the services of the regional council of Auvergne.
2004 Deputy director general of the services of the general council of the Allier.
2007 Ministerial advisor to Brice Hortefeux.
2011 Inspector General of the Administration of Sustainable Development, a position he still holds today.
2014 Vice-president of Montluçon community, notably in charge of economic development.
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Politics has been with Jean-Jacques Kégelart for almost fifty years. In 1974, he pasted posters for Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing. “My family was Gaullist but they followed Giscard. He represented youth, a new lease of life, a society which is opening up, not permissive but which makes things possible. »
The Giscard years…
He recounts with happiness and emotion his years spent in the region with the former President. “It was a good time. We were a united, close-knit, efficient team. It was hard, we worked seven days a week, but Valéry Giscard-d’Estaing knew how to trust us and was always there to answer when there was a problem”, says this former pupil of the Lycée Henri IV, who “l ‘Auvergne with tripe’. As a child, he spent his holidays on his grandparents’ farm, in Livradois-Forez.
… then the era of Sarkozyism
Between 2007 and 2011, he followed Brice Hortefeux in different ministries: immigration, labor and interior. After the Giscardian family, he discovered the Sarkozystes. “Sarkozy is an energy, a will, a love of his country like Giscard. Giscard was more structured, Sarkozy more intuitive. For ten years, he has kept a foothold in Paris within the general inspection of the administration of sustainable development.
A comeback after the municipal elections
It was the mayor of Montluçon Frédéric Laporte (LR) who offered him to run for the legislative elections with the label Les Républicains, praising his “skills, his professional career and his knowledge of high administration”. A surprise when we remember that Jean-Jacques Kégelart had chosen to line up behind Joseph Roudillon at the last municipal elections. “I do not refuse a hand that is extended to me. Before making my decision, I consulted other elected officials, and no one told me “You mustn’t go there”, argues Jean-Jacques Kégelart, who wishes to “serve and be useful”.
“It’s proof of Frédéric Laporte’s intelligence,” comments Joseph Roudillon, who praises “the great intellectual finesse” of Jean-Jacques Kégelart and his address book. For Frédéric Laporte, the maneuver allows him in passing to destabilize the opposition a little more.
“Montluçon, is it a cursed land? »
Jean-Jacques Kégelart regrets seeing Montluçon as “an abandoned territory”. As proof of this, Emmanuel Macron’s recent visits to Vierzon, Châteaumeillant, Moulins, Vichy, Moulins, Ahun and Bourganeuf. “Montluçon, is it a cursed land? “, he quips.
“He was not on my side, but Pierre Goldberg is the last real MP we had here. With him, Montluçon existed in the National Assembly and he had his entrances into the ministries. Since then, Montluçon has been terra incognita, ”continues this resident of Deuille-lès-Chantelle, who has a pied-à-terre in the industrial city.
Time to take the light
It was only in 2014 that Jean-Jacques Kégelart joined Montluçon, at the call of Daniel Dugléry, who made him his vice-president in charge of economic development. Daniel Duglery? “A dynamic, offensive, builder man, who contrasted with the Bourbon mentality and who came to Clermont-Ferrand to shake the coconut tree”, qualifies Jean-Jacques Kégelart. Coming to Montluçon, the man in the shadows wanted to take the light. It’s finally time.
Guillaume Bellavoine
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