He’s lucky, Edouard Philippe. Because of the confession of running mats who already participated in his municipal campaign in 2014 and who pile up, “ this one has nothing to do »They recognize while methodically, last Friday, in pouring rain and as every day with a certain abnegation, the tour of the billboards of the city. They tirelessly glue and glue the poster of the candidate crossed out with a short and sober “Le Havre!” Edouard Philippe ”, with a red exclamation mark reminiscent of that of the Le Havre light boat, pictured behind their list head. Posters, in this city where seven lists clash, regularly covered by those of the Le Havre Citizen list led by the Communist deputy Jean-Paul Lecoq, old man of local politics, long mayor of the neighboring commune of Gonfreville-l ‘Orcher.
“Philippe takes a fever”
Nothing to see this campaign? Inevitably. Admittedly, in this city delighted with the Communists in 1995 by his former mentor Antoine Rufenacht, who entrusted him with the keys in 2010 before his victorious campaign of 2014 from the first round with 52% of the votes cast, Edouard Philippe wanted to talk about Le Havre and only from Le Havre. However, national politics and the country’s tense climate regularly appear. The pension reform, in the first French container port and its powerful CGT, went through there. 49.3 also. Monday, the number one of the CGT Cheminots Laurent Brun came to Le Havre, to say “ all the evil “He thinks” of the policy of Edouard Philippe “Recounts the daily” Paris-Normandy “.
Saturday evening, his campaign permanence, several times degraded, was stoned and tagged with “49.3 Philippe has a fever. It must be quarantined ” Sunday, the deputy Agir Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo and number two on the list, filed a complaint. Funny campaign, where security question, preparation of 49.3 and management of the coronavirus crisis oblige, the running mate on the ground rarely know when the candidate can be present.
” Seen on TV “
“ This is the VSD candidate, for Friday, Saturday, Sunday. It’s a very fast marketing campaign “, Repeats to anyone who wants to hear Jean-Paul Lecoq who recognizes an aspect” respect for the function and seen on Prime Minister’s TV “, and an “ image of the city that has changed, has improved ” So not surprisingly, he obviously plays the card of the nationalization of the campaign, pointing, “ because of Philippe and ” he adds “ from Macron “In addition to the pension reform,” the rise in CSG, the drop in APL… “
After the “yellow vests” and at a time when the parties remain as unpopular as ever, when the green wave is rising, the one who offers free transport to Le Havre and presents himself as “ the only coco elected against nuclear power plants “, Puts forward on its list of citizens not inserted, advocates the” co-construction On all floors, criticizing, as if echoing criticism of opposition at the national level, an outgoing municipality that does not concert enough with the people of Le Havre. And it is obviously no coincidence that Tuesday, in the National Assembly, it was he who stepped up against the Prime Minister, castigating a 49.3 who, he wants to believe, “ will not pass into the population. Anger grows, you don’t have a popular majority “
“Return to communism”
“ An epiphenomenon “Sweeps Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo. But who can “ mobilize the left electorate a little and maybe demobilize ours a little ”, she says. Mobilization is also the message hammered by Edouard Philippe in a public meeting, like last Friday evening, in a café in Le Havre with around thirty young workers. A Corona beer in hand, the candidate Edouard Philippe puts first on his balance sheet and “cwhat happens or not in Le Havre in the short, medium and long term ” A program that he must also present at a meeting this Thursday evening.
For two long hours, he talks about the economic, cultural and tourist dynamism of the city, transport, medical houses, green lungs, libraries open on Sundays, university life which he still wants to develop and when he s ‘not the competence of the mayor, he advances’ that a mayor is often the egg yolk of mayonnaise, if it is gifted, it takes “… He lets go with a smile, about the future headquarters resulting from the merger in 2021 of the ports of Le Havre, Rouen and Paris on which the government must decide in April, which he will then argue” the excellent assets of Le Havre with the Prime Minister… I will try to touch him on it. “In the background, something to suggest in this campaign,” that it is good for Le Havre to have Edouard Philippe “Slips a relative. “ The question is, do you want to go back to communism Adds Agnès Firmin-Le Bodo, playing on the transformation of the city since 1995.
Democracy and decibels
At the start of the meeting, Edouard Philippe who, if he is re-elected and stays in Matignon, will give way to the current outgoing mayor Jean-Baptiste Gastinne (LR), had quickly evacuated the question, praising both his team and the mandate of mayor and ensuring that once its mission is completed – “ it can go very quickly, it can take time ”, he said in good Normand – he would be “ very happy to come back here ”. Above all, he who is no longer LR but is not LREM either, also insists on the construction of his list which did not stop at partisan labels, even if it brings together a good part of the right and counts in fourth position Oumou Niang-Fouquet. A regional councilor from the PS and ex-player of HAC Handball, the Le Havre club which she co-chairs and which Jean-Paul Lecoq would have liked to see on his list.
This will be useful when Edouard Philippe does not escape a second round, according to an Ifop poll for CNews published this Wednesday. Because if it is given widely in mind, it has, with 42% of voting intentions, 10 points less than in 2014 and 9 less than in an Ifop poll carried out in the autumn. Before the protest against the pension reform.
The list of Jean-Paul Lecoq is credited with 25% and that led by the municipal councilor EELV Alexis Deck, supported by the PS, confirms the ecological rise with 16%, in front of the RN, which, at 10%, plays its maintenance in second round. Not quite enough to make March 22, as in Jean-Paul Lecoq’s dream, “ a referendum against Edouard Philippe ” But enough to encourage the Prime Minister, as this Friday evening, to call to vote and to vote. “ Democracy is not decibels, it’s voting […] I hope you believe it more than two hours ago, otherwise I’m bad. “
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