Jimmy Pahun, MP for Morbihan – Gwénaël Saliou – Bretons
It was a friend who called me Jimmy. And since then, it has stayed. ” From the top of his almost two meters, the member laughs. “My real first name is Jean-Michel. My father wanted it, because Locmiquélic means the village of Michel. ” Two steps from the quays of this port which faces Lorient, Jimmy Pahun recalls its local roots. It is an authentic “Minahouët”, as we call the inhabitants of the town. “Here, I am above all the son of Francis Pahun, who has been mayor for eighteen years.” The Pahun family is indeed firmly established around the harbor of Lorient. So there was first the father, a former long-distance captain, a gaullist and fierce opponent of neighbor Le Drian, who disappeared during an accident at sea. The oldest of the four children, Jean-François, is a documentary film maker noticed, in connection with the maritime world. And the second, Jimmy, first got into the world of competitive sailing, then television, before being elected a member in 2017.
“The taste of Others”
He himself enjoys this route, however badly started. Bad student – “today, I would be called a hyperactive child” -, he left school without his baccalaureate to embark as a fisherman at 16. “Thank goodness I managed to hold on to a passion, sailing.” During his career, Jimmy Pahun won two French ocean racing championships and numerous Spis and regattas. If he modestly admits that he has “never been a great champion”, he has lived in sailing for more than twenty years. “Vivoté”, he corrects. “Because I have always known how to organize myself and gather good teams around me. And then I discovered that I was very good at sports commentary. I was almost a better commentator than a skipper. ” America’s Cup, Atlanta Olympics… Jimmy Pahun comments on sailing events on television, stands out, invents a style, tells at heart level and fascinates viewers for a sport that has hitherto been rather austere.
But soon enough, the taste for politics – “the taste for others”, he prefers to say – inherited from his father, caught up with him. In 2001, Jimmy Pahun was elected municipal opposition councilor in Port Louis, where he then lived. Then, in 2007, he positioned himself as a substitute for the legislative candidate MoDem. Within the collective Le Peuple des dunes, he engages in the fight – victorious – against a sand extraction project off Gâvres and Quiberon.
And when a certain Emmanuel Macron arises in the political landscape, Jimmy Pahun becomes enthusiastic. “I found him quite fantastic from a young age, daring, with this desire to break the codes, to change my mind a little.” However, he does not obtain the nomination of En Marche. But, faced with the fixed price of the planned candidate, he finally launched himself by claiming to be the president. And even if he is not part of the LREM group in the National Assembly but of that of MoDem and related parties, he claims to “feel good about this majority”. The former dunce, the competitor and the media man, who does not hesitate to admit that he has “no opinion on all subjects”, seems to be passionate about this new career. He was particularly involved in maritime issues. “I’ve been getting up every morning for two and a half years saying three things to myself. First: what a privilege to be elected! Then stay who you are. And finally: what can you do today to bring your little stone? ”
“IF WE CONTINUE TO BUILD, IN 240 YEARS, THERE WILL NO LONGER BE A BLADE OF GRASS IN BRITTANY!”
Discover the interview with Jimmy Pahun in the magazine Bretons n ° 163 from april 2020
This article is produced by Bretons magazine and hosted by 20 Minutes.
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