Marseilles (AFP)

Marseille swings again in uncertainty Tuesday: Michele Rubirola, first woman mayor of the second city of France, will resign for reasons of "health" announced the leader of his party, with the prospect of new political negotiations for his succession.

Less than six months after his election on a list of union of the left, the Marseille Spring, Michèle Rubirola, 64, will resign "for health reasons", told AFP Julien Bayou, leader of Europe Ecology the Greens (EELV), the party of the mayor of Marseille, confirming information revealed by several media at midday

Ms. Rubirola is due to speak Tuesday at 4:00 p.m. to the press after an "important meeting" of her majority, the town hall said in a statement and sources within the municipal team.

His resignation, which must be accepted by the prefect, should lead to a new vote by the municipal council to choose a successor.

A perilous exercise for the brand new left majority, which had managed to delight the town hall on the right after 25 years of reign of Jean-Claude Gaudin (LR).

In July, due to the PLM law (Paris-Lyon-Marseille) which requires one vote per sector in these three cities, the election of Ms. Rubirola was played in the "third round", that is to say tell the city council, after several hours of breathless suspense, in particular to ensure the support of the leftist list - competitor of the Marseille Spring - led by Samia Ghali, figure of the popular districts of the city.

In the absence of an absolute majority in the first round of the ballot in the hemicyle of the Old Port, the negotiations between elected officials continued throughout the day of Saturday, July 4, to end, in extremis, in the election of Ms. Rubirola.

An unexpected victory for this woman, a doctor in the working-class neighborhoods, quasi-novice in politics, appointed to bring together the motley left coalition of the Marseille Spring (Socialist Party, Communist Party, part of the rebels, Ecology-the Greens).

- indented -

Since her debut at the town hall in early July, Ms. Rubirola has withdrawn on several occasions, for holidays in August, for surgery in September and finally, at the end of October, because she was "contact case" at Covid-19 .

Not comfortable in front of the cameras, she often gave way to her first deputy, Benoit Payan, leader of the socialist opposition during the last term of Jean-Claude Gaudin (1995-2020), who should become acting mayor.

This "tandem" destabilized his political opponents, including the president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region, Renaud Muselier (LR), who had slipped to the press in October: "I do not want to discuss with a duo but with the mayor!".

While rumors about a resignation of the mayor swelled after an article in Le Monde reporting that the elected representative was considering leaving after three months in the mayor's chair, Michèle Rubirola and Benoît Payan had cut it short, in a duo interview with Liberation at the end of October.

"Today, I am here and I stay there", affirmed the sixty-year-old, while slipping: "We do not know what will happen, like the disease".

In his entourage, a source tells AFP that it is not about struggles between the first deputy and the mayor.

In front of the town hall on Tuesday, Agnès, activist of the first hour of the Marseilles Spring, judges that Benoît Payan, if he were to take over, "is very marked PS and it does not really correspond to the aspirations of the voters"

The resignation of the mayor of a large city during his term of office - apart from appointment to higher positions - is not a first but is generally linked to a challenge by the courts, as was the case for the former mayor of Nice Jacques Médecin in 1990 following his indictment for the offense of interference.

The former mayor of Bordeaux Alain Juppé had also had to give up his elective functions in 2004 after his conviction in the case of fictitious jobs of the mayor of Paris.

© 2020 AFP