This Thursday evening France Bleu Occitanie is organizing the debate of the 1st constituency at the Cebely in Blagnac. A PRG candidate is a candidate in this constituency of Blagnac which also includes part of the city center of Toulouse and the municipalities of Beauzelle, Cornebarrieu, Mondonville.
Pierre-Nicolas Bapt, who is also President of the Radical Left Party in Haute-Garonne, is campaigning in this constituency in the northwest of Toulouse. He returns to the microphone of France Bleu Occitanie, on the importance of his candidacy.
France Bleu: Why are you a candidate on the left when there is already the union of the left, the Nuppes?
Pierre-Nicolas Bapt: At the national level and even at the local level, we considered that it was not not possible to join this unionalthough we were offered it.
Why didn’t you find an agreement?
Quite simply because there are two or three essential points which make up our DNA and on which we could not not compromise. Knowing that even Manon Aubry had said that only 5% of the program of insubordinate France was negotiable. 5% we found was still not enough.
If we understand correctly, are you on the same line as Carole Delga, the socialist president of the Region?
Mrs. Delga is a socialist, we are left-wing radicals, so we will say that we sail together. We carry an old entity. I’m sorry to talk like that. It is the oldest party in France and we consider that on secularism, on Europe, on VSEs, SMEs, we really didn’t agree to answer your previous question.
We know that with the PRG, it is often secularism that is put forward, that is defended. Is that what stuck with the Insoumis and the Nuppes?
We consider that we all belong to the French Nation. There is discrimination, we know it, and we fight it. However, we cannot have a secularism with a double or triple function. It is very difficult for us and I will give you an example. When we see that the breaking of the fast had been organized by France Insoumise in Villeurbanne. It is considered that it is not possible for a political party to organize a breaking of the fast. What would have been our reactions if a political party had organized the end of Lent for Catholics. The religious fact remains in the private sphere.
In any case, the first constituency of Haute-Garonne is still one of those who voted the most for Mélenchon in the first round of the presidential election? With 32%. Why aren’t you going to line up behind Adrien Clouet, the France Insoumise candidate?
For the reasons I mentioned to you. On VSEs, on Europe, we are different. And then concerning the 32% of Mélenchon, I think that there really was a meaningful vote in this constituency. If frankly, rebellious France is at 32% in this sector, why in 2020, has the city not swung to the left. And last year, at the cantonal, they did not obtain any canton. And at the regional level, they only made 5.8%, even 8% or 9% in Toulouse.
Negotiation is our key word.
How are you going to convince voters to vote PRG? Qund o look at the figures, what is the interest of voting for you, you do not weigh much?
We are going to convince them not with figures but with a history and values. A humanist left that does not want to divide, which is rather in the negotiation we are not social democrats. We are rad-soc, radical-socialists and I claim it. And we want to focus more on negotiation than on splitting and rupture.
Let’s talk about aeronautics because it’s at the heart of the riding. Do you think that La Nuppes is a danger for Toulouse’s economic lung, for aeronautics?
I do not know. But considering that it is absolutely necessary to review aeronautics, I think that is a big mistake. Quite simply on two or three points. The first is that it is the economic lung of the riding, but also the economic lung of the region. And you know very well that in the region, there are actually three sectors that support employment, aeronautics, agriculture, tourism. Aeronautics also strongly influences tourism. I really want us to stop having planes. But how will the tourists come? There are 100,000 people who make a living from tourism, it is also frankly a very important industry. Nevertheless, and I conceive it and we conceive it, it is absolutely necessary to have planes which pollute less. And here I ask the question is it for pleasure that airlines fly planes with carbon fuels? Of course not, it costs them the skin of the buttocks. So there is a double desire, in my opinion and capital-intensive and from an environmental point of view, to go for non-carbon fuels. I emphasize that Carole Delga, in particular, has strongly committed to a regional policy on green hydrogen. There is therefore a political will, outside the LFI, to move towards carbon-free fuels in order to preserve the environment.
Finally, in the constituency, there is also the Purpan hospital. Emmanuel Macron was in Cherbourg two days ago. He announced a complete change in logic on health. Do you believe it?
We’re wishing for the best. We have a big problem in the emergency room. There is a big burn-out among doctors, especially among emergency doctors. It is absolutely necessary not only to reconsider the nursing staff, but also really their working conditions. We cannot, at the same time, announce that during the Covid period that we are going to open beds and not do so. There is a real suffering of the nursing staff. There must be a negotiation between the Minister of Health, the union representatives, in order to determine how we can get out of the rut. Negotiation is our key word.