Former socialist minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem on Saturday formalized his candidacy for the presidency of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, a region led by Laurent Wauquiez (LR).
Former socialist minister Najat Vallaud-Belkacem on Saturday formalized his candidacy for the presidency of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, a region led by Laurent Wauquiez (LR).
François Hollande’s former Minister of National Education, whose decision was not in doubt, announced his candidacy for the June regional elections in an interview with the region’s three major dailies, Le Progrès, Le Dauphiné Libéré and La Montagne.
Ms. Vallaud-Belkacem says in this interview that she wants to embody “an alternative” to the politics and governance of Laurent Wauquiez, who seized the region in 2016, that she charges with “patronage” and “short-termism” “. In addition to the PS, its list brings together the PRG, Cap ecology and the Republican and Social Left.
According to this interview, the discussions with the other left forces, in particular the environmentalists, were unsuccessful, while Ms. Vallaud-Belkacem aspired to make regional elections “the laboratory of the union of the left”, in the grip of to a “suicidal” division.
The former elected from Lyon and unsuccessful candidate for deputation in Villeurbanne still leaves the door open to a rally “before the first round”. Otherwise, “there will always be the evening of the first round,” she adds.
“Ball in the camp of environmentalists”
“The ball is more than ever in the camp of environmentalists,” the leader of the socialist group in the region, Jean-François Debat, told AFP, deeming the last meeting with the Greens on Friday “extremely disappointing”.
“While we wanted a balanced rally, they demand a dry rally,” he blasted, adding that the discussions were “never blocked”.
Tuesday, in an interview with AFP and Progress, President EELV of the metropolis of Lyon Bruno Bernard had estimated that Najat Vallaud-Belkacem “would be a real added value for a common campaign” and had hoped that the former Minister is “head of the list in the metropolis of Lyon”.
He had[…]
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