A friendly horizon
April 23, 2017: “The start of a simple story”. Pierre Cuny, who is preparing to receive Édouard Philippe this Saturday, March 12, in his stronghold, revisits with pleasure the genesis of what he defines as “a beautiful relationship”. “On the evening of the 1is round of the presidential election, I was to be one of the first elected, at 8:05 p.m., to launch an appeal to vote for Macron. A responsiveness noted, and appreciated, by the Élysée.
A few weeks later, the mayor of Thionville was invited to Matignon through Francis Decoux. This close collaborator of Édouard Philippe is not unknown in the Thionvilloise place: Pierrick Grall, director of cabinet of Pierre Cuny, would be part of his circle; the late mayor of Thionville, Anne Grommerch, also knew this man from the shadows. “So I participated in this meal with other right-wing compatible mayors. The current went well with Édouard Philippe. His cabinet even invited me to two other meetings which I declined. I had too much to do…”
–
A crisis on the horizon
April 2020: France is confined, Pierre Cuny is talking about him and his city for his management of the Covid crisis. “My secretary asks me if I want to take a call from… Matignon. Suddenly, it surprises. “At the other end of the line, the Prime Minister takes the pulse of the situation in Thionville with the “mayor doctor”: “The means that we had deployed from the start of the pandemic, with in particular the installation of a center of screening, had challenged him. He wanted to know my vision of the crisis, the exchange lasted half an hour, reports the first magistrate. In June, he called me back. What surprised me was that he knew the political situation in Thionville perfectly well before the municipal elections. He concluded the call with “I don’t care about you, happy election.”
–
A political horizon
September 2021: the Horizons party is formed. Unlike Emmanuel Macron, Édouard Philippe seeks to root his ambitions in French political territory: “It’s very intelligent on his part”, observes Pierre Cuny. At the invitation of the former Prime Minister, he went to Paris in the company of Jean-Christophe Hamelin-Boyer, municipal councilor in charge of health. The meeting took place in a cafe, near the Eiffel Tower. Two hours of discussions, focusing in particular on the sensitive issue of liberal medicine, before sealing the creation of a Horizons committee in Thionville.
Close enough to the mayor of Le Havre to be familiar with him but not enough to claim to be one of “his close friends”, Pierre Cuny praises his personality. And his loyalty: “In the polls, he is still today the favorite political personality of the French. He could have seized this opportunity for the presidential election but he did not do so by still supporting Emmanuel Macron. The guy has backbone. And a brain, which projects it (a little) further than this presidential deadline: “Of course, assuming that the party belongs to a future presidential majority, Horizons would claim constituencies within the framework of the legislative elections…” Like the 9e constituency of Moselle?
–
