Paris (AFP)
The former president of the University Aix-Marseille Yvon Berland will be "supported" by the Republic in march for the next municipal elections of March 2020 in Marseille, announced Monday the presidential party.
Mr. Berland, aged 68, was preferred to the deputy LREM Saïd Ahamada, who had announced his candidacy "whatever happens", and the dean of the Faculty of Law Jean-Philippe Agresti. His appointment - officially a "support" and not an "investiture", which opens the door to a rallying list - puts an end to months of hesitation by The Republic on the move.
The succession of the emblematic mayor LR Jean-Claude Gaudin promises to be very contested: besides Mr. Berland, the senator PS Samia Ghali, the senator RN Stéphane Ravier, the boss of the UDE Christophe Madrolle, Stéphane Barles EELV, Martine Vassal, the president of the Aix-Marseille department and metropolis for Les Républicains, as well as Senator Bruno Gilles, who has just left LR.
Coming from a "modest background", Mr. Berland is a medical specialist in nephrology. Internal Marseille hospital, this OM fan who played goalkeeper supports his doctoral thesis in 1979.
Professor of medicine in 1988, then dean of the Faculty of Medicine of Marseille in 1998, he was appointed president of the University Aix-Marseille II in 2004 and was re-elected in 2009.
During this second term, it is he who will be responsible for merging the three universities of Marseilles, to create the University of Aix-Marseille, which he is the first president in 2012. Reached by the age limit in 2019, he leaves this chair on August 31st.
On Monday evening, the executive office of La République en marche validated a total of 22 investitures or supports.
In Montpellier, the LREM deputy Patrick Vignal was invested to challenge the outgoing mayor Philippe Saurel, who was one of the first supporters of Emmanuel Macron in 2016 but did not seek the label of the presidential party. In particular, Mr. Vignal put the contractor Mohed Altrad on the post.
In Nîmes, LREM will support Yvan Lachaud, former Deputy Mayor of the outgoing Mayor Jean-Paul Fournier, who has just announced that he will be running for a fourth term in March. The centrist was preferred to Walker David Tebib, president of the handball club of the city.
In Rueil-Malmaison (Hauts-de-Seine), Nicolas Sarkozy's former minister and former deputy Patrick Ollier, who is also president of Greater Paris Métropole, has obtained the support of LREM for a fourth term. As in Chaville (Hauts-de-Seine) where the outgoing mayor Jean-Jacques Guillet (ex LR), former member of Parliament from 1993 to 2017, has the support of the presidential party.
© 2019 AFP