"I will not be hostage to any blackmail," said leader of the left union in Marseille Michèle Rubirola on Friday, shortly after ex-PS senator Samia Ghali announced that she would condition her support upon obtaining the position of first assistant. "The future of Marseille must not be played out around an individual claim. I will not be hostage to any blackmail, I refute these practices far removed from the issues and I invite Samia Ghali to do the same", a she said in a statement.
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Arriving largely at the head of the popular vote Sunday in the second round of the municipal elections, the union of the left and the environmentalists of the Marseilles Spring however did not have enough seats on the municipal council to have an absolute majority during the election of the new mayor on Saturday. "I met Samia Ghali and I repeated to her my ambition to make the northern districts a priority," continues Michèle Rubirola, referring to the working-class districts where Samia Ghali was elected.
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Earlier on Friday, the latter, whose eight votes on city council are essential to building a majority, announced that she would submit her support to Michèle Rubirola for the position of first assistant. "This request seems legitimate to me. Firstly because beyond the values that we share, I am the one who can allow him on Saturday to be effectively mayor of Marseille. Secondly and above all because the desire to rebalance our city and taking into account working-class districts can no longer be mere words, "she said.
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While refusing any "blackmail", Michèle Rubirola nevertheless tried to overturn Samia Ghali in the Marseille Spring camp. "A few hours before the election of the mayor, I renew my call to the assembly and my total desire (...) to see them, she and her running mates, take part in the executive", she adds . "By their vote, the Marseillais expressed their hopes for change, they elected a team, validated our project and gave us a mandate to set it up over the next six years", she continues, also lambasting "the maneuvers of the battered right's lower floors, stopping at nothing to keep its power and dispossess the Marseillais of their victory ".