In Lyon, Collomb wants to lose the Greens ... and his old friends

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By: Anthony Lattier Follow

It's a confusing end of the reign. In Lyon, Gérard Collomb, 73, received an electoral slap in the first round of the municipal elections. Arriving fourth in the race for the Lyon metropolis, the outgoing mayor and former Minister of the Interior, has allied with the right, in other words with his opponents forever! For La République en Marche, the former socialist, early supporter of President Emmanuel Macron, crossed the "red line". But he defends his choice and hopes to block environmentalists, who came first in the first round, but also his former relatives. 

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From our special correspondent in Lyon ,

Relatives no longer understand him, several of his assistants drop him, La République en Marche withdraws his investiture, and smiles at him: "  When I supported Emmanuel Macron in 2017, the Socialist Party had already told me that I had crossed the red line. I am used to it !  The shouts of gold from each other make it neither hot nor cold. Standing, arms crossed, in his vast office which he still occupies for a few days, Gérard Collomb assumes his choice: to join forces with the right to beat the environmentalists in the second round of the municipal and metropolitan elections in Lyon Sunday, June 28.

In office since 2001, this early support from the Head of State plays an unexpected score. His strategy upset local political balances, against a backdrop of personal hatred and settling of scores. “  I would not want this city that I built in the space of 20 years and which, by everyone's admission, to be a very beautiful city, with tremendous economic success, regress tomorrow. This is what I am fighting for,  ”says Gérard Collomb, who has just celebrated his 73 years.

For him, the alliance passed between the two towers between environmentalists, socialists and a candidate supported by the rebels puts in "  danger the Lyon economy  ". "  We put the most sympathetic on the front of the stage but behind there is France rebellious and, beyond, extremely radical elements  ", alarmed the former Minister of the Interior.

" Preserve the essential "

"  When you are faced with the risk that everything that has been built is abandoned in favor of a form of political dogmatism, whether environmentalist or far left, you tell yourself that the important thing is to come together  " , supports the new ally of the outgoing mayor, Senator Les Républicains François-Noël Buffet.

It is with this adversary of yesterday that Gérard Collomb made an agreement, under the leadership of the president LR of the Rhône-Alpes-Auvergne region Laurent Wauquiez, former boss of the right: to François-Noël Buffet la métropole (which includes 59 municipalities and whose election of councilors is carried out for the first time by universal suffrage), and to Yann Cucherat, the colt of Gérard Collomb, the city of Lyon. Weakened by his fourth place, Gérard Collomb, he withdraws from the race for the presidency of the metropolis.

To justify himself to his constituents and those close to him, some of whom have distanced themselves from it, François-Noël Buffet summons up the story: “In  Lyon, we have this ability to meet to preserve the essentials. In 1989, Michel Noir (RPR) became mayor and president of the urban community of Lyon and decided on a common thread in terms of town and country planning. Without there being any disagreements, this common thread has never been questioned. Neither by Raymond Barre, nor by Gérard Collomb.  "

" Alliance of Conservatisms "

Faced with hammered attacks in a loop by this unexpected new team, the ecological duo led by Bruno Bernard, who led the race for the metropolis with 22.5% of the vote, and Grégory Doucet, who came first to the city of Lyon with 28 % of the votes, question the logic and the political project of two men who opposed yesterday and campaign hand in hand today. Grégory Doucet justifies his own alliances: “ Certainly we have moved closer to two other lists on the left, but the project that is defended is ours, that of environmentalists, the candidate is an environmentalist (it is me), and the head of lists in all the boroughs, they are environmentalists . "

Grégory Doucet denies any presence of "  radical elements  " in these ranks and attacks these "  anti-ecological alliances which in Lyon, as in Bordeaux, Toulouse, Strasbourg or Tours, turn out to be alliances of conservatisms, which above all want to change nothing and keep an established order. However, this is what leads us to crises that we know: climatic upheavals and the depletion of biodiversity,  "notes this Amnesty International executive in Africa, unknown to the general public before the first round, and now favorite for the second. "  I lead a team of around 500 people deployed in ten countries, I manage tens of millions of euros, I know how to surround myself  ", certifies the candidate of Europe Ecology The Greens aged 46. In search of credibility, Grégory Doucet has also already announced the names of several of his assistants.

Kimelfeld and Képénékian caught in a vice

Between these two blocks which face each other, two former very close to Gérard Collomb scramble to make room for themselves. President of the metropolis since Gérard Collomb gave him his place when he returned to government, David Kimelfeld came third in the first round with almost 17% of the vote, in front of his former boss. The discussions between the towers did not allow him to seal an alliance. But David Kimelfeld thinks that he can still keep his post: “  No one will have the majority on the evening of the second round. The question will not be which side I will go to but who will want to gather around my project.  "

On the side of the City of Lyon, the situation is almost identical for Georges Képénékian, also a dissident walker, acting mayor of the city when Gérard Collomb was Minister of the Interior. With his 12.5% ​​in the first round and without allies, he still believes in these chances and send these adversaries back-to-back. For Georges Képénékian, the "unnatural" alliance of walkers and the right and the "leftist drift" of environmentalists confused many Lyons voters in each camp, which he hoped to take advantage of. 

A Greek tragedy

In this upset political landscape, many wonder: why did Gérard Collomb prefer to ally with the right rather than with two men - David Kimelfeld and Georges Képénékian - to whom he is politically close and to whom he had entrusted the keys to the city and the metropolis in 2017? In other words, why did he prefer his opponents over his friends? In reality, since Gérard Collomb's transition to government and especially since his return to Lyon the following year, the links between the three men have been loosened, to the point of breaking. And make reconciliation impossible.

For Gérard Claisse, who has just resigned from his post as deputy mayor after the announcement of his alliance with the right, what is happening contains "all the ingredients of a Greek tragedy": " There is the king: Gérard Collomb, the dolphin : David Kimelfeld ; friend, doctor, confidant : Georges Képénékian ; the queen : Caroline Collomb; and the courtyard with courtiers and schemers. Since 2017, there has been between Collomb, Kimelfeld and Képénékian, a succession of humiliations and betrayals, real, supposed, or constructed by those around them. Everyone has betrayed the most intimate thing in their relationship with each other, to the point of no return. And today we are in this very pathetic moment where we are ready to lose in order to lose our best friend.  "

This is the reason why, beyond wanting to beat the environmentalists as he affirms, "  Gérard Collomb wishes to block the way for these old friends, who have become traitors to eliminate  ", laments Gérard Claisse. "  Gérard Collomb cannot transmit, he does not have a dolphin, he cannot have one !  ", Despairs his old friend Georges Képénékian, who notes that all of the potential dolphins of the outgoing mayor have been eliminated one by one over the years.

Gérard Collomb, he sweeps the critics and recalls that he has withdrawn from the race. "  If I had stayed, I would have been told ' Gérard Collomb clings to his mandate, he does not know how to withdraw '. But there, I am not a candidate, I show that what I do is for the good of the city.  But if he no longer participates in the presidential race, Gérard Collomb is still at the top of the list in the riding of Lyon-Ouest. His withdrawal from Lyons' political life is not for yet. 

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