Martine Aubry (PS), Stéphane Baly (EELV) and Violette Spillebout (LREM), candidates in the second round of the municipal elections in Lille, debated on France 3 Hauts-de-France 3 days before the election. We will summarize for you what to remember.
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D-3 before the second round of municipal elections. In Lille, the three qualified candidates debated on France 3 Nord Pas-de-Calais. While in the first round Martine Aubry (29.8%) came first ahead of Stéphane Baly (24.53%) and Violette Spillebout (17.53%), the results of the second round are more than ever uncertain. The latest survey gives the outgoing mayor and the environmental candidate neck and neck. While one in three voters in Lille went to the polls during the first round on March 15, abstention could be the key to this election.
Different topical themes were discussed, such as the unbolting of the Faidherbe statue requested by associations. The three candidates shared the same point of view on the need to recontextualize and install an explanatory plaque at the foot of it, in consultation with historians, associations and citizens.
The debate was divided into several themes, summarized below
Lille facing the crisis
The first theme concerns the Covid-19 crisis and the changes it may have brought about in certain programs.
Martine Aubry: “We still have to go further in what we had proposed. The ecological transition must go hand in hand with social progress. This crisis has validated and reinforced the priorities that I proposed to the people of Lille. Employment will be the problem of back to school, health too, access to care. We also need a stimulus. We all have great plans for the ecological transition, but we absolutely have to go faster. It would be an intelligent, ecological revival.“
Stéphane Baly: “We had to adjust our programs. Nevertheless, it is certain, this unprecedented health crisis has demonstrated all the acuteness of the proposals that we have been able to bring (extension of terraces, cycle paths …): sharing public space, universal income , this social shock absorber absolutely essential in the crisis we are going through. We are fully in tune with the health crisis, the social crisis, the economic crisis and the ecological crisis.“
Violet Game Bolt: “The crisis has reinforced our convictions on the fight against isolation, in particular for the elderly and people with disabilities. It is necessary to go to the front of Lille. We have a town hall today which has become bureaucratic. However, we have municipal officials who want to go to the Lille home. I think that the elected officials that we will be tomorrow, the mayor that I will be tomorrow will have to learn from it and be by the side of the most fragile Lille.“
Lille: improving the healthcare offer
The three candidates wish to establish a municipal mutelle. Violette Spillebout wants “restore equal treatment between the inhabitants of Lomme, Hellemmes and Lille“, but also rely on the example of Roubaix where, according to her,”people who use this system benefit from a 35% reduction in the cost of the health insurance“The candidate supported by La République en Marche (LREM) points to the lack of specialists in Lille.”For an appointment with the ophthalmologist or the dermatologist, there is sometimes 3-4-5 months of waiting.“She proposes the creation of municipal care centers, like in Paris. She believes that her city lacks attractiveness, which prevents health professionals from settling there.
These words made reactive outgoing mayor Martine Aubry, strong from her experience in different ministries that she does not hesitate to highlight. “Universal health coverage was implemented by me in 2000. It is my greatest pride in what I did when I was in government“boasts one who was then Minister of Employment and Solidarity in the government of Lionel Jospin.”The CMU has allowed 5 million inhabitants to be treated free of charge in France“, she continued before adding that almost all Lille residents were covered, except students. For the socialist, it is necessary”hiring and upgrading of caregivers. It is not enough to have said thank you to them at 8 p.m. every day and to have said 1st and 2nd line, you have to be there“she argued.
Stéphane Baly, the candidate Europe Ecologie Les Verts, behind this topic, soberly declared that the inhabitants of Lille were not covered and that with this health crisis, “there was a need for every Lille resident to have access to healthcare“.
Lille: what security policy?
The third theme, particularly topical after the murder of a man a few steps from Lille Flandres station at the beginning of June, concerned security policy. Martine Aubry and Violette Spillebout are in favor of installing more video surveillance cameras, while Stéphane Baly opposes it.
