Posts Tagged "Christian Estrosi"

Two months passed, 150 bikes stolen, no response given

Nice introduced its rent-a-bike system in July. Now, with over 150 Vélos stolen and/or broken, the company has been forced to suspend the service while it adjusts the security system.

This is unprecedented, despite other grandes villes like Paris and Marseilles already having a stable Vélo system in place.

What it really shows is the rapid increase of delinquency and anti-social behaviour in the city.

The security problems don’t lie with the Vélo company, Veloway, the affiliate of Veolia, but are really a consequence of the bad choices the Mayor Christian Estrosi has made since 2008.

Stop him, he’s getting away! (Estrosi)

For ideological reasons, Estrosi has constantly refused to increase the numbers of local policemen out on the streets to keep order in the city.

Instead, he persists to funnel investment into video surveillance and the over-equipment of existing police officers, such as his project to give them all tasers to play with.

Patrick Allemand, leader of the Opposition in the Conseil Municipal (Town Hall), said (in French):

The citizens of Nice do not need a « Robocop » but a human presence which dissuades crime and reassures citizens.

Furthermore, I have not seen one person wearing a helmet while riding these bikes. Not in the street, not in the adverts, not even Estrosi… though that might be a good thing!

Sarkozy disobeyed by his party in PACA

Since I wrote my last article (here) explaining the situation surrounding the elections of the Conseil Régional PACA (Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur) we have had an important development!

Hubert Falco, who was widely tipped as the man to wrangle PACA from the Socialists, has officially refused orders to lead the UMP list.

The papers (including myself) were all too quick to draw the battle lines. However Falco’s refusal means that the UMP (particularly Sarkozy) is in substantial disarray, with no local candidate known well enough to take an important and symbolic prize.

Sarkozy has very little choice, given that he can no longer force Falco into it. After a public “no”, a public “well all right then” would not play very well in such a close contest.

The only real alternative could be Sarkozy’s minime, Christian Estrosi. Yet the Mayor of Nice also has far too many other jobs (including a ministerial post), and it’s a very risky proposition. By moving Estrosi to PACA, it creates a power vacuum in Nice, leaving the door open to anti-Sarkozyites in a key city.

Estrosi is thus unlikely to accept, which means Sarko is probably going to have to send someone down from Paris. French elections are highly localised, so without Falco the goalposts for the Socialists have just become that bit wider.

The Battle for PACA: the Left, the Right and Le Pen

PACA is one of the 23 regions of France, it stands for Provence-Alpes-Cote D’Azur. The capital is Marseilles, which holds the regional assembly where most of the elected Regional Councillors work. I visited there once when they had some sort of big session going on ; it’s rather like any other hemicycle based parliament, and it was also there that I ate my first snail.

Most of my office time is spent in a branch of the Conseil Regional in Nice, a section mainly for civil servants, and apart from the incredibly pleasant atmosphere and kind people, it’s also a good place to be because the Socialists are in power.

However, the Regional Elections are taking place in March.

The Parti Socialiste took power from the Right in 1998 and has held it ever since, though in the present political climate coming from Paris, 2010 could be a difficult one.

Sarkozy is making it his business to reclaim a lot of regions lost to the Left in 2004, but PACA is on the top of his list along with Ile-de-France (No inside information from me on that one).

The pressure therefore rests on the Mayor of Toulon (and minister for veterans), Hubert Falco who is preparing himself to head the UMP list, though he has yet to officially declare it. PACA is fairly naturally right-wing, with Sarkozy himself winning 62% in 2007.

So on paper the region looks like it could fall to the Right in 2010, just as it looked in 1998. Normally, it would be a straight duel between the PS and the UMP, were it not for the far-right Front National.

Avoiding a Three-Way

The UMP’s biggest fear is that the Front gets more than 10% and thus qualifies to the second round, creating a PS vs. UMP vs. FN triangle. In 2004, the results were 45.18% vs. 33.82% vs. 21.00% respectively.

Clearly the FN is successful at sapping the support of the UMP, allowing the Left to jump ahead. It seems odd that the far-right would allow such a thing to happen. The explanation mainly comes from the FN leader Jean-Marie Le Pen, for whom PACA is his old stomping ground as an MEP for the South East, and so it comes from pride more than ambition.

Note here the stark lack of principle in Sarkozy compared to Chirac. Chirac would never do any deals with the FN and fired anyone who did (Not a No Platform, just a No Bargaining policy). Sarko, on the other hand, is determined to grab as much as he can, and the UMP have been in discussion with Philippe de Villiers and his far-right but not quite the Front team (MPF party, for you experts).

Hubert Falco, UMP, keeps his cards close to his chest

The regional level of the UMP is under a strict keep-quiet policy under Sarkozy’s orders. The line from HQ is nothing else than “We’re getting on with the task at hand.” Dealing with the recession and all that kind of thing; there’s an economic crisis going on, people aren’t bothered with silly things like elections that happen every six years.

Falco, set to be the local boss, will of course have to leave his city of Toulon, and the department, to which he claimed he was dearly attached. Much like how Estrosi said his only loyalty was to Nice before he became Minister for Industry.

Michel Vauzelle, Parti Socialiste, wants to keep the Left united

This gent is going for a third mandate as Monsieur Le Président de la Région PACA which is coincidentally how many times I have spoken to him. (We get on well.)

His plan is a coalition of the Left (if it worked before…) however, this typically does not include Communists who have their own group. This time, it probably won’t include the Greens, as they’ve gained a bit of confidence since the EU elections and want to go it alone. (Morons) Vauzelle’s response was “What do they think they’re playing at?” He’s a very good bloke.

Jean-Marie Le Pen, Front National, wants to exact his revenge

As he’s past 80, these will be without doubt Le Pen’s last elections (Mark my words!), but he sees them as going to be triumphant. He didn’t run in 2004 because he was ineligible and left someone else at the top of the FN list, but with the big boss in town, the party might do surprisingly well. Last time when his part got about 20% he said the results were less than they were hoping for.

Le Pen’s strategy will be to go after those right-wingers taken in but then disappointed by Sarkozy, in addition to winning about 10% in the three “heaviest” departments. If they get past 10% in the regional, I won’t be the only one not surprised.

My Very French By-Election: Round 1

As voters in Pasteur, Cimiez and Libération vote in the first round of the by-election for Nice 6, I’ll take you through the choice they face. There are 11 candidates in total from the extreme left all the way to the extreme right. The two winners from today will go through to round 2 next Sunday. Meaning there’s still a week to go before we definitely definitely win.

The Heavyweights

The local press has framed the election mainly as a “duel between left and right” with the two main parties in France likely to go through.

Xavier Garica: Parti Socialiste

My team! Xavier Garcia is the press spokesman for the Parti Socialiste and grew up in the constituency. He seems to be the only candidate with a consistent slogan “Pour mieux vivre dans notre quartier” (To improve life in our neighbourhood”) and a very good poster designer (not me). His website is also first rate.

We put out a questionnaire at the beginning of the campaign and had over 500 responses. Guess whose task it was to put the answers in a spreadsheet? Yo. At least now I know this section of town better than most residents of Nice.

His only potential weaknesses are the image of the PS at a national level (a mess) and the fact that he has never run for anything before. However, this could of course work in his favour compared to our adversary.

Lauriano Azinheirinha: Union pour un Mouvement Populaire

The “favourite” in that the UMP won the election first time round but were disqualified (The PS did not field a candidate; see the Greens). They have glossy leaflets and incumbency on their side.

However, the candidate is not particularly well known despite already being a Deputy Mayor. He is relying on the charisma and name recognition of Christian Estrosi. As you can see in the picture “Estrosi avec Lauriano!” and on all his literature the name Estrosi has been in bold. Dirty Tricks abundant, Estrosi even wrote a letter to the residents of the canton telling them who to vote for. TSK.

The problem with riding on Estrosi’s coattails is that they are plenty of anti-Estrosi people out there!

The Lightweights

Though there are other minor characters we’ve seen out and about:

Vincent Péchenot: Les Verts (Greens)

When the elections were officially taking place, the PS decided not to field their own candidate but make an agreement with the Greens, as they work together in the group Changer D’ère in the Mayoralty.

From what I gather, this gent is not really a viable candidate to go against the UMP war machine so the PS decided to take it upon themselves.

I’ve seen them out leafletting fairly frequently, though it was off to a slow start. One particular occasion they were riding around Pasteur on bicycles with green flags. That might work in Cimiez (lots of richy-ecologist types) but not so much in Pasteur. D’oh!

Then we have this not very interesting assortment of right-wingers, most of whom pitch them selves as “UMP without the UMP part” or just plain “No to Estrosi”. (Spot the Lib Dem)

The Loonies

And you can’t have 11 candidates without finding a few comedy gems and plain old nightmares!

Communists

Though the Parti Communiste is typically considered mainstream, I just haven’t quite got used tot eh idea that Communists still exist. The PCF campaign hasn’t been great at all, and their literature has been AWFUL. It’s a nice poster though, if a little cluttered by logos.

We haven’t seen much of this guy apart from posters, but he’s definitely my favourite after Xavier (for a different reason); I don’t know why, but everytime I pass his poster I die from laughing, perhaps you can figure it out:

Hahaha. It’s just brilliant. First, contrast it with the others and you notice a certain rough-and-ready quality.

Second, compare it with the official Communist Party candidate: The Black-and-White photo, OLD-SCHOOL! For all those who feel that the Communist Party is just too damn right wing these days! We need a PROPER communist around here.

I think it’s the Hammer and Sickle that gets me.

The Fascists

So we have the extreme Left, now take a look at the extreme Right:

Jean-Louis Faudi: Front National

The bigger brother of the BNP, the FN has been the subject of many questions posed to me.

First, it has to be said that the FN has not got a huge presence in Nice any more. It just to be very strong, but due to local internal fighting the organisation all but collapsed. You tend to find pockets of FN activity, but I haven’t seen any obvious activism as I think they only come out at night. I have seen areas with “Le Pen: President” stickers on lamp posts, and they have covered a fair bit of ground in terms of paper, but nothing slick.

Click on the poster above though, and you’ll notice a few things: One, he just looks plain evil, what with the squinting. Two, some have asked about  whether, like the BNP they have tried to “reinvent themselves.” I’ll point you to the black shirt. I’ll also point you to the mini picture of the Muslim women. The slogan reads “meme emballée, l’immigration n’est pas un cadeau” which means “Even wrapped up, Immigration is not a gift.”

Benoit Loeuillet: Nissa Rebelda

But for those of you out there who think the FN is for softy pinkos, there exists an even further right candidate for you!

This is, to my knowledge, the NiceIndependence  movement. You can see that some enterprising individual decided reveal his little Hiter ‘stache. The funny thing is he gave the kiss of death to Xavier in an interview where he said (roughly):

The only good surprise about this campaign has been that Garcia. At last! A lefty who is not afraid to talk about security. 2nd round, we vote for him.

Round 2

At the moment, I (like everyone else) am assuming that it is the UMP and the PS who will qualify, though the results will be announced officially tonight. Then it’s a straight head to head until the winner is decided next Sunday.

If all goes well, the Greens and Communists will come rallying to us. Conversely, it’s unlikely that the UMP guy, on such an overly pro-Estrosi platform, is going to win the support of the Far-Right or even the Centre-Right minor parties.

My very French By-election: The Battle for Nice 6

On Sunday, habitants of the 6th canton (district of a town) of Nice will go to the polls to elect a new Conseiller Général (It’s kind of like a Local Councillor).

This is a by-election, after the elected UMP candidate was disqualified for breaking the rules on funding. The area in question is Nice 6, which is a big district spanning from Libération through Pasteur and up to Cimiez.

Obviously, I’m going to present to you a very impartial and balanced view:

Votez pour nous!

I’ve been on the Campaign Team for the Parti Socialiste; our candidate is Xavier Garcia. I’ve been particularly involved with this because he is also the man who welcomed me to France and offered my current job. I am thus especially indebted to him for his kindness and hope you will all join his Facebook group, even if you can’t vote, or even if you can’t understand French. Hopefully, I have helped him as much as he has helped me. (You might recognise his website from somewhere…)

The Candidates and Parties

There are 11 candidates, ranging from the Communist Party to the Socialist Party to the UMP and the National Front, with plenty in between.

Amazingly the Left is more united than the Right, (how is that possible, you cry?) with just the PCF (Communists) and the PS (Socialists) and the Greens.

The Right on the other hand, (as it would be) is privy to Sarkozy’s UMP, an independent friend-of-the-embittered-former-mayor, a whole host of other tiny independents and of course the National Front, the older brother of the BNP. I haven’t seen more than a poster from them, but I have heard they’ve been around.

How to say NO

A question I am frequently asked is “Don’t they all hate you?” The answer is in fact, no! Of course there is an abundance of right wingers, but they don’t get angry, they just say “no thanks, I’m from the Right” so we say “Okay, have a nice day” and move on. The Lefties are the ones who are generally more energetic, particularly the old ones against “the reactionary Right!”

One man does stick in my mind though, we knocked on his door and he told us that he “always voted but neither left nor right.” I think he was FN…

Leaflets and Literature

I’ve learned a great deal about effective campaigning (I’ve learned plenty of what-not-to-do as well, from the other parties of course). Perhaps it’s a French condition, but they all seem to love writing long letters with lots of text.

I’ve collected most of the literature I’ve seen while out and about which ranges from the very very good, to the very very bad. So here are a few of the highlights:

My favourite include an early leaflet from the UMP which focuses mainly on the personality of the mayor, Christian Estrosi, rather than the local candidate. In a style that suggests “Our glorious leader presents to you… some guy!” Estrosi’s name features first, is bigger, and is in a brighter colour than the gent who is actually running.

Then a Communist piece (in monochrome BLUE ink, just to add to the confusion) which spans four pages of nothing but text. Which a sort of questionnaire at the end of each proposition, where the choices are “I share this view” or “I do not share this view” or “I have a different view” – That’s Communism, I suppose!

Who is going to win?

I don’t know. I think the PS has put forward the best campaign, but there are a lot of UMP voters out there anyway. The French system dictates that there are two rounds of elections, so hopefully we will get through on Sunday to round 2, which will be between just two (maybe three) or the bigger candidates.

Stay Tuned.

Sarkozy launches a cut in VAT

Yesterday was the first official day a cut in VAT (TVA) came into effect.

Having criticised Gordon Brown not so long ago over his handling of the British economy, President Sarkozy decided to follow suit an implement his own temporary tax cut. Neoliberal Sarko is now nowhere to be found, but then again, it IS Sarkozy we are talking about, continuity was never a strong point.

Here a few ministers (looking pretty smug, it has to be said) gather around for their first coffee at a lower price, including the Mayor of Nice and Minister for Industry, Christian Estrosi (Boo, hiss!) sitting second from left.

The cut seems to be widely welcomed, and comes as a welcome relief to Nicois restaurants (and me in particular) who are quite keen to be able to lower their prices.

However, some establishments won’t be lowering their prices but instead will be using the tax relief to raise wages.

I haven’t seen any directing from the government on which approach is preferable, Brown was quite keen for businesses to pass on the cut to the consumer, though with unemployment as serious as it is in France, I won’t complain against wage rises.