Marseilles (AFP)

The outgoing president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d'Azur region Renaud Muselier indicated on Wednesday that he could welcome the current Secretary of State for People with Disabilities Sophie Cluzel (LREM) on his regional list if she resigned from her post .

"Ms. Cluzel nobody knows her (...) except that she is a minister" and that constitutes "an absolute bulwark. As a minister, it is not possible", explained the elected, questioned on France 2 on a possible participation of the one who had been designated head of the LREM list in Paca on her own list.

"But if Ms. Cluzel wants to resign, to bring her skills as responsible for the disabled for the restart of the region, I take the skills wherever they come from, as I did during this period of crisis to ensure that my region works, ”added Mr. Muselier.

The Republicans decided on Tuesday to bring "their support" to Renaud Muselier for the regional Paca after having obtained the assurance that there would be neither minister nor LREM parliamentarian on his list.

"There can be no agreement at any level whatsoever with LREM," said LR's national investiture commission, which voted in support despite five votes against and three abstentions.

At the same time, government spokesman Gabriel Attal had caused trouble by assuring that there would be "of course" LREM candidates on Mr. Muselier's list.

"This is the meaning of this rapprochement, of this alliance that there is with" the LR president of the region, he explained on LCI.

"There was never an agreement with LREM," Renaud Muselier hammered on France 2 on Wednesday, referring to "a form of collective hysteria" which was triggered after the Prime Minister spoke.

Jean Castex announced on Sunday the withdrawal from the LREM list in the first round of regional elections in Paca in favor of the list of Mr. Muselier by evoking "a political recomposition".

A term refuted by Mr. Muselier who insists on the purely local character of his approach of openness to win against the RN list led by the former minister of Nicolas Sarkozy Thierry Mariani.

"In any case the region will not be the laboratory rat of a political recomposition, we are not an experiment. But, we are not either the stepping stone for the presidential election of Ms. Le Pen," a hammered Mr. Muselier for whom a victory of the RN in Paca "always possible" would be "a very big explosion".

© 2021 AFP