candidates, polls and campaign briefs

REGIONAL ELECTIONS 2021 – On daily basis, France Inter examines the problems of the poll in a area. For this seventh episode, zoom in on New Aquitaine, the biggest territory within the nation, the main agricultural area in France, held by the socialist Alain Rousset. He’s operating for a brand new mandate.

On daily basis, France Inter invitations you to take inventory in one of many 13 metropolitan areas affected by the regional elections on June 20 and 27. Seventh half in New Aquitaine.

ID card

• Inhabitants: 5,979,778 inhabitants
• Finances: three.2 billion euros
• Capital metropolis : Bordeaux
• Departments: Charente (16), Charente-Maritime (17), Corrèze (19), Creuse (23), Dordogne (24), Gironde (33), Landes (40), Lot-et-Garonne (47), Pyrénées-Atlantiques ( 64), Deux-Sèvres (79), Vienne (86), Haute-Vienne (87).

The outgoing: Alain Rousset

He’s unbeatable regardless of the merger of the areas. Former mayor of Pessac, a city close to Bordeaux, former socialist deputy, Alain Rousset is the president of the Aquitaine area, then Nouvelle-Aquitaine, since 1998.

What occurred in 2015: a big socialist victory

Greater than 4 million voters had been referred to as to the polls. Alain Rousset had received with margin, 44.2% of the vote, forward of the Union record of the suitable of the middle (34%) and the FN (21.6%). In the course of the first spherical, the Entrance Nationwide had marked the spirits, arriving on the head within the Lot-et-Garonne, a rural division. To win, Alain Rousset was allied with EELV.

The forces concerned: the RN intends to shake up the first spherical, the PS serene

At 70, Alain Rousset has “all the time the fervour” he mentioned. He makes arguments about his age and longevity : “Public motion takes a very long time. Immediately, the primary battery manufacturing unit for electrical automobiles will probably be arrange in New Aquitaine. We have now been working there for 10 years.” “4 phrases is sufficient” asserts Geneviève Darrieussecq, the minister liable for veterans. It drives a LREM MoDem record: “It doesn’t regulate something in proximity. I’m for the insurance policies tailored to the territories. Alain Rousset concentrates all the pieces in Bordeaux.”

The reproach is analogous with Clémence Guetté, which brings collectively rebellious France and the NPA. On this immense area, the territories toast she says : “The outdated Poitou-Charentes and the outdated Limousin are territories the place individuals really feel deserted by political powers. Geographical remoteness interprets into democratic remoteness.”

If in 2015 Europe Ecology the Greens had joined Alain Rousset, the ecologists are aside this time. Nicolas Thierry, the pinnacle of the record, needs to proceed the momentum of the municipal elections, received specifically in Bordeaux and Poitiers. “The president’s downside is that he does not do what he says. He all the time talks about peasant agriculture. However on the slightest alternative, he funds sprayers for pesticides.”

“Success has gone to their heads” replies Alain Rousset merely. Edwige Diaz, the candidate of the Nationwide Rally, don’t forget the 2015 poll, the place the PS and EELV had been allied : “It is humorous these bickering who will reconcile the night of the primary spherical.” The rising determine of the RN is registered as a pilot fish for Marine Le Pen one yr earlier than the presidential election. However this isn’t a regional venture, retorts Nicolas Florian, the pinnacle of the LR record. He tries to win again the traditional right-wing voters: “I put myself within the place of those that undergo, we’ve got seen it with the ‘yellow vests’.” In New Aquitaine, the state of affairs of a triangular is rising for the second spherical.

What the polls say: EELV and LR indifferent

Outgoing candidate Alain Rousset is the favourite within the first spherical. However he’s adopted by Edwige Diaz, the candidate of the Nationwide Rally, at 25%. Within the earlier election, Jacques Colombier had collected 23% of the votes within the first spherical. Behind, the minister and former mayor of Mont-de-Marsan, Geneviève Darrieussecq is credited with 19%. The massive losers appear to be the candidates The Republicans and Europe Ecology The Greens, with 14% and 10% of the voting intentions.

The marketing campaign theme: roads, TER, LGV, what priorities?

The right way to get round in such an unlimited area, torn between the coast, giant metropolises and rural areas? Ought to we finance roads, renovate small strains, construct a high-speed line? This is likely one of the fierce debates of the marketing campaign. Edwige Diaz, the pinnacle of the RN record, and elected rural within the north of the Gironde, primarily needs to construct roads. To argue, she offers the blow within the caricature: “Engaged on an electrical scooter is a risk for some Bordeaux illnesses however not for rural residents.” To open up sure territories, TERs are wanted, and roads additionally, helps Nicolas Florian, chief of Les Républicains: “I’ll make a street map. While you transfer between Limoges and Poitiers, you aren’t secure. It’s a must to put a 2 × 2 lane.”

For rebellious France and its supporters of the NPA, the longer term can be small railway strains, and never the LGV, which they take into account merely pointless explains candidate Clémence Guetté: “We wish to finance the restore of tracks, reopen stations and permit mobility and free entry as a result of the monetary obstacles to particular person mobility are actual.” The rail can be a marketing campaign axis of Europe Ecology the Greens : “On this election marketing campaign, there may be magic cash which is reappearing” Nicolas Thierry method. “We should as an alternative make investments 1.5 billion to renovate current tracks. The LGV would convey Toulouse and Bordeaux nearer to 15 minutes. We should not be demagogic and provide life like options.”

The LGV is likely one of the factors of competition between Alain Rousset and his former – and maybe future allies – environmentalists. “These infrastructures are important” proclaims the president of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, “essentially the most polluted a part of the area is the outdated Nationale 10. It is 10,000 vans a day. And if I haven’t got the potential of passing freight trains, we cannot ship items. on the prepare. ”

As a very good centrist, Minister Geneviève Darrieussecq hears each the financial and regional planning arguments. The answer for the Minister Delegate is innovation. It drives the LREM Modem record: “There may be _tracks which could possibly be renovated in a lighter approach and which might assist lighter trains._“ This answer doesn’t come out of nowhere. That is the one already put ahead by the Secretary of State for Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari.

All lists current:

• “Our territories, our energies”, led by Alain Rousset (Socialist Get together, French Communist Get together, Left Radical Get together and Allies)
• “Proper and focus on Nicolas Florian”, led by Nicolas Florian (Republicans, UDI and allies)
• “New Aquitaine with Edwige”, led by Edwige Diaz (Nationwide rally)
• “Our terroirs, our future”, led by Nicolas Thierry (Europe ecology-The Greens)
• “Unity makes the area”, led by Geneviève Darrieussecq (The Republic on the march, Modem)
• “The Rurality Motion, Resist with Jean Lassalle”, led by Eddie Puyjalon (The Rurality Motion, Residents Motion)
• “We’re right here!”, Led by Clémence Guetté (The rebellious France)