- After the first round of municipal elections on March 15, two candidates remain for mayor of Toulouse: the outgoing Jean-Luc Moudenc (LR, supported by LREM) and the ecologist Antoine Maurice (Citizen Archipelago).
- Arriving at the head of the first round with 36.2% of the votes cast, the outgoing councilor, who has not changed his list a iota, wants to convince the many abstainers but also the moderate left.
- "My # 1 fight is jobs," he said in the final stretch, while warning the Toulousains against his opponent's far-left running mate, whom he considered "dangerous".
In Toulouse, the battle for the Capitol promises to be tighter than expected. Jean-Luc Moudenc (LR, supported by LREM), the outgoing mayor, is now shoulder to shoulder in the polls with the ecologist Antoine Maurice and his union list of all the lefts. In a final straight disrupted by the Covid-19 crisis, the councilor concentrated his attacks on the running mongers very to the left of his opponent and wanted to defend the employment of the Toulousains.
Monday, a second poll gave you the loser. What inspires you?
What I have been saying for a year, that the ballot will be very tight. There was first a poll at 52/48 in favor of my opponent, then this one at 51/49 always for him, this corresponds to what I always said without being believed. So I hope that there, people will believe me, and that the people of Toulouse who recognize themselves in the action that I am leading or those who do not want directions from my opponent will wake up and come to vote. Especially since the health crisis is fast approaching and that voting on June 28 will not present any risk.
You feel that there were more abstainers in your camp. How are you going to convince them?
We are in the process of contacting them. When you have 155,000 abstainers in a city like Toulouse, that means that everyone has people around them. Then there are these Toulousains from the center left or from the moderate left who also contact us now that they realize that there is a real danger for Toulouse. This sensitivity will also make the decision.
Antoine Maurice finds you "feverish" and accuses you of doing "a gutter campaign" ...
I am a very calm boy, I am Zen, I am serene. I don't see where the gutter campaign is. I'm just telling the truth that my opponent is hiding. He advances masked in this election, with a sympathetic window - "It is necessary to green the city", which can be against - and he camouflages the extremist running mate who are in his team and who would have municipal responsibilities if he won. I exposed it all. It is in reality an operation "Bas les masques", that he lives badly.
You target his running mate but you speak little of your opponent
I think that Antoine Maurice, if he were ever mayor, would not have the authority to really lead this municipal team. There are very antagonistic tendencies between the traditions of the managerial left and the protesting ultra-left. And indeed, in the event that my opponent wins, I fear that the municipal team will explode fairly quickly and at the worst time. Because unfortunately we are going to have a considerable economic and social crisis. We will need the 4th city of France to be held, led with a united and united team.
Do you not find yourself a bit in the situation of Pierre Cohen in 2014, to defend a balance sheet and known projects against a team that offers something new?
When you have a big ambition, you need big projects. When you are a large metropolis, if you do not have major projects, then development is not done, jobs are not created. And big projects take time. The third metro line, I never told the people of Toulouse that it would be done in 2020, I obviously knew that this would not be the case. However, I told them, we are going to prepare it. My opponent and his friends fiercely criticized this project, from the start and then every time it was mentioned. So, I am in this election, the only one who can guarantee the real implementation of the third metro line.
Will you have the means after the health crisis?
If the question only arose in Toulouse, it would indeed be a problem. The Covid crisis reduced a certain number of receipts everywhere in France as regards transport. The problem arises at the national level and all elected officials in France, in all major cities and whatever their trend, will step up to the plate and dialogue with the State to obtain the necessary funding.
Results of the municipal elections in Toulouse
But can you keep the date of 2025?
Today, any elected official, in Toulouse or elsewhere, who would make peremptory assertions on transport projects would be in my opinion reckless.
Has the coronavirus challenged elements of your program?
Our project remains valid and meets expectations. However, the crisis forced us to move. During confinement, we thought about defining reorientations. We have distinguished three priorities: protect the employment of Toulousains first, protect the security of Toulousains and protect their health.
My fight n ° 1, it is therefore employment. And if I am fighting for major projects, whether it be the third metro line, and also the LGV that my opponent wants to question, if I am fighting for road investments, it is precisely because I know that these construction sites will create jobs when we need them most.
Is ecology still at the heart of the project?
Ecology is in health. I believe that ecology does not belong to any party. What I have done since 2014 in terms of ecological progress, no municipality has ever done so. We increased investment in public transport by 30% compared to the period when Mr. Maurice and Mr. Cohen were in charge, we increased the area of green spaces by 10%, we more than doubled the number of shared gardens, we have reduced consumption of public lighting by 30%, we have doubled the production capacity of green energy, be it hydroelectricity, anaerobic digestion, the heating network.
We have made very great progress in ecology, paradoxically much stronger than during the period when Mr. Maurice himself was in charge. This is why we are proposing to go further, particularly in terms of the greening of the city or the energy efficiency of housing. All of this is very consistent.
What will be your priority health project?
It is a project that I presented at the beginning of March in general indifference: the creation of a nursing home in each district, so that care is more easily accessible to everyone, near home. We have created or encouraged a few. What we want is to systematize them. We are comforted by this intuition that we had before the others.
Why did you want to show your support for the police on Tuesday?
I support the national police, a republican force. I find it scandalous the confusion that some people make between what is happening in the United States, which is a real shame for democracy, and the police in France. We generally try to make all the police pass for violent and racist when in reality they protect us and are scrupulously respectful of the republican order, except for this or that punctual case for which we must have no complacency .
How do you assess your agreement with LREM?
If successful, LREM will have five seats out of 53 seats on the city council, that is to say as many as today. Me, I made the choice to give the first place to the civil society and that is a peculiarity. In the second round, we are the only list to propose a team where half of the candidates do not belong to any political group, like 95% of Toulousains. While the making of Mr. Maurice's list, in pain, was an agreement of apparatchiks between several parties.
The "Sunday Newspaper" sees you in government, have you been made the proposal?
I have read these rumors in the corridor where I am quoted. I immediately denied this far-fetched hypothesis. I will not seek the suffrage of the Toulousains on Sunday and, on Monday, leaving for Paris, it is not serious. I have not been approached by anyone. If the people of Toulouse elect me, there is a moral contract between them and me.
Municipal
VIDEO. Municipal in 2020 in Toulouse: A poll gives the candidate on the left list, Antoine Maurice, slightly ahead
Toulouse
Municipal in 2020 in Toulouse: Moudenc takes out the sulphate against "the dark forces" of Citizen Archipel
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