Paris (AFP)

The Prime Minister launches into battle: Edouard Philippe will run as the top candidate for the municipal elections in Le Havre in March, but will remain in Matignon if he is elected.

"My decision is made. I matured it like any important decision. I decided to be a candidate for mayor of Le Havre as head of the list (...) In a democracy, the foundation of legitimacy is is the election, "said the former mayor of the Norman city (2010-2017), Friday in an interview with the daily Paris-Normandy.

"Our fellow citizens above all do not want above-ground political leaders. I am happy to be able to face universal suffrage again and I think it is very healthy," he said.

Mr. Philippe, expected Friday evening at a meeting in Le Havre, thus puts an end to several months of suspense around his candidacy, which he had revived the hypothesis last September by recalling, in a declaration of public love for the city, that his docker's great-grandson "guts" tasted "of salt water".

"Proposing a six-year project to the people of Le Havre and the people of Le Havre, gaining their confidence is essential if we want to make things happen," he added.

Mr. Philippe, to whom intentions had been attributed to Paris for this election, assured that he had "never considered a political engagement elsewhere than in Le Havre", where he was elected since 2001 and made a career, first under the tutoring of the emblematic mayor Antoine Rufenacht.

"This is the city I love. This is where my ties are," pleaded one who does not miss an opportunity to sing the merits of the port in his public interventions. "It is here and nowhere else that I want to confront universal suffrage," he insisted.

- "Intense countryside in Le Havre" -

Elected in the first round in 2014 under the UMP label (now Les Républicains) with 52% of the vote, Mr. Philippe stressed that "his greatest ambition" was to become mayor again. A function he describes privately as "the level of public action that I prefer".

In the meantime, "if the President of the Republic continues to trust me, I will continue to fulfill my mission as Prime Minister because we do not shirk when it comes to serving his country," he said. he continued.

Thus, if he was elected on the evening of March 22, Mr. Philippe would propose that the current mayor (LR) Jean-Baptiste Gastinne keep the chair.

And "the day when my mission will end in Matignon, I wish, if the people of Le Havre obviously trust me, to become mayor again because that's where I want to continue to invest, because I want Le Havre to continue its that’s what’s essential, "he said.

Without specifying the outlines of his program which he describes as "ambitious", Mr. Philippe assured that he would lead "an intense campaign in Le Havre", while fulfilling his "obligations in Paris", while the pension reform continues its journey by examination in Parliament and by discussions with the social partners.

But in this tense context, Mr. Philippe rejected any attempt to "draw national lessons from the Havre elections".

"The commentators will comment, they love it ... It's not my subject. I want to talk about Le Havre and what I want to do for the city," he said.

© 2020 AFP