Michèle Rubirola, when her resignation was announced.
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NICOLAS TUCAT / AFP
Michèle Rubirola announced Tuesday her decision to resign from Marseille city hall.
She was elected on July 4 after the victory of the Marseille Spring, a gathering of left-wing political parties, and a collective of citizens.
But as she confided before her election, she had never had the ambition to become mayor.
Six little months and then goes.
The mayor of Marseille, Michèle Rubirola, elected on July 4 under the banner of the Marseille Spring, a gathering of ecologists, rebels, socialists, communists, and citizen collectives, announced her resignation on Tuesday.
Half a surprise.
During the campaign between the first and the second round, she repeated her truth to
20 Minutes
: “Some were there to be head of the list, me not.
I was there to participate ”.
If she was propelled candidate of the Marseille Spring, it is because Benoit Payan, who became his First Deputy, crystallized the doubts of the renewal, he who always had the PS label stuck on the back.
A woman, breaking with EELV, was needed.
"I was the person who could carry the gathering more easily than another, in the eyes of the community", analyzed Michèle Rubirola.
A victory in the home stretch
At that time, nobody saw the Marseilles Spring beating the right led by Martine Vassal, favorite, not even Michèle Rubirola.
But a disintegration of the outgoing majority entangled in the so-called false powers of attorney, then an agreement reached with Samia Ghali after nine hours of municipal council, led Michèle Rubirola to become the first woman elected mayor of Marseille.
Very discreet during the summer, she had to be absent for a month for a surgical operation in September.
It was Benoit Payan, who had provided the interim, and in particular the local rebellion against the measures imposed by the government to fight against Covid-19.
Enough to raise some doubts about his real desire to lead Marseille.
"If I don't get run over ..."
Doubts even more nourished by the investigation of the
World
, and the famous tirade "Are you aware that I am only there for three months?"
», Pronounced by Michèle Rubirola to a potential chief of staff.
This is not his response to say the least surprising ("Carpe Diem. If tomorrow, I get run over I wouldn't be here. If I don't get run over, I would still be there"), on his return from convalescence who had dispelled them.
Perhaps a little more the interview given to
Liberation
winding this new way of doing politics, in tandem with his first deputy.
Michèle Rubirola, a rare act of political intelligence, against the usual voracity of power on https://t.co/2YvNzGPYiU via @franceinter https://t.co/2YvNzGPYiU
- thomas legrand (@lofejoma) December 16, 2020
A few days later, it was during the program
You have the floor
of France 2, organized at the Velodrome stadium, that Michèle Rubirola appeared uncomfortable in this media exercise imposed by the function of mayor of the second city in France.
Similar criticisms had already been raised during the election campaign.
Because you have to be familiar with this exercise when you occupy a position so publicized, and too bad for the apparent freshness that some appreciated.
"A unique gesture in politics"
In her resignation speech on Tuesday, she appeared more natural, as already relieved by her decision.
“From the summer I experienced the first difficulties related to my health.
These health challenges limit the energy I can muster.
Being mayor of Marseille is 300% of his time, I give 150% of it, ”she said before listing Marseille's state of abandonment and the immense task to be accomplished:“ Since 1945 Marseille has not 'has never been so close to sinking'.
An ultimately logical decision for the one who now wishes to switch roles with Benoit Payan, by recovering the post of 1st assistant to devote herself to what she knows how to do: health and social action.
“This is a unique gesture in politics,” emphasizes Olivia Fortin, at the origin of Printemps Marseille, and assistant in charge of modernizing services.
Too often we see politicians leaving their posts for personal interests or because of legal issues.
There she says that she is not in capacity, that she is not the right person and that she does not cling to all that, ”she considers.
"We saw that she didn't know what to do"
It is not her inexperience in politics, she has been elected since 2008, but rather the reality of the situation in Marseille that pushed her to this decision, assures this close.
“When you see the level of neglect of the old municipality, how the administration works, the asset management… Everything is chaotic.
Every time we open a drawer, we hallucinate.
There is, for example, no listing of the city's heritage.
We discover apartments that belong to the city completely empty and uninhabited for years.
It's even worse than we imagined, everything is amazing, ”says the assistant.
For the opposition Les Républicains, it was obvious that Michèle Rubiola would not go to the end of her mandate.
“She has neither the capacity for resilience, nor the pugnacity to strike.
In politics you take blows, but you have to know how to return them.
We felt that she was carrying out a mandate that was not hers, ”said Lionel Royer-Perreaut, mayor of the LR sector.
But for him, this decision to leave the place of mayor to Benoit Payan is anything but spontaneous.
“This great momentum was shattered in the face of real politics as they say.
Payan knew he couldn't be the common denominator for the union so he pushed for it to be Michèle Rubirola.
Faced with the hold that Payan has on her, Michèle Rubirola has accepted this role of decoy.
She didn't think Spring had a chance to win and this lure worked too well.
From the moment she was elected, we saw that she did not know what to do, she played the role for a while before using this operation as an excuse to resign.
Except that
Le Monde
fanned this strategy, which was only postponed, ”unfolds Lionel Royer-Perreaut.
Political politics is never far away in Marseille, the real lesson of this resignation.
Politics
Marseille: And now, who will become mayor in place of Michèle Rubirola?
Sport
Stade Rennais - OM: Pape Gueye, the future emperor of Marseille midfielder
The Marseillais Spring
Resignation
Municipal elections
Marseilles
Mayor
Michele Rubirola