Montpellier (AFP)
Nine years after the death of the socialist Georges Frêche, the dominant figure who ruled Montpellier for nearly three decades, division reigns in the city of Languedoc at the approach of municipal.
The political landscape of the seventh city of France is "unusually fragmented", underlines the political scientist Emmanuel Négrier.
"Elected by surprise as part of a quadrangular" in 2014 after dissenting from the Socialist Party, Philippe Saurel (DVG, support of President Emmanuel Macron) "does not benefit from the hegemonic position of the outgoing mayor", analysis M. slaver.
Mr. Saurel will announce his decision to represent or not at the end of 2019 / early 2020. But he seems to campaign for months, especially on environmental issues.
Locally, the consequences of global warming are already real, with a historic temperature in France of 46 degrees recorded on June 28 in the Hérault.
"Everyone has an interest in defending their ecological fiber, since it seems to be the political poster that works in a context where partisan affiliations work with difficulty," commented the researcher in political science.
On the other hand, Philippe Saurel's early support for Mr Macron may seem "tricky in a city sociologically marked on the left," he said.
Boosted by one of the highest population growth rates in France, Montpellier, with a population of 282,140, is a renowned university center welcoming some 70,000 students. But beyond its image of sunny eldorado, the social situation of the city is marked by unemployment rates (13%) and poverty (19%) high.
- Blur -
The outgoing mayor does not claim the label The Republic on the Move (LREM) but is banking on the fact that the presidential party does not present anyone in front of him.
Yet two other contenders seek nomination In March: LREM deputy of Herault Patrick Vignal (ex-PS), which focused Thursday its campaign on security, and billionaire Franco-Syrian Mohed Altrad.
The founder of an international group based in Montpellier and president of the rugby club of the city, went into politics on September 16th.
His candidacy "is based on the idea that on economic legitimacy, we can build political legitimacy", according to Mr. Négrier. But "everything is vague in this landscape, including the prospects of rallying".
Each political force has its share of divisions.
"In the socialist family of origin, of the old hegemony", there is the tendency Vignal, Saurel and Michael Delafosse, candidate of a PS in vertiginous fall which calls nevertheless to a union around him.
On the side of France Insoumise, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon had arrived largely ahead of the first round of the presidential election in 2017 in Montpellier with 31.46%, the possibility of weighing on the outcome of the next municipal also comes up against deep internal dissension.
The victory at the local primary school of Europe Ecology the Greens (EELV) of Clothilde Ollier, an emergency nurse embodying a line close to the left and "yellow vests", had given rise to the hope of a broad "confluence".
In a joint text, two national figures of LFI - François Ruffin and Clémentine Autain, the ecologist Mayor of Grenoble Eric Piolle and the LFI deputy of Montpellier Muriel Ressiguier hoped that in Montpellier, "the green, the red and the yellow .. marry "to conquer the city, one of the bastions of the movement of" yellow vests ".
But the national electoral committee of LFI on Tuesday gave its support to the citizen movement of Montpellier "We are". A choice rejected by local activists and which has engendered a new division.
© 2019 AFP