Renaud Muselier describes the resignation of former mayor Michèle Rubirola as “political feminicide” and sparks controversy

Guest on BFM Marseille on Thursday, the Renaissance president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region created controversy by declaring that the socialist Benoît Payan carried out “political feminicide” by succeeding the resigning former mayor of Marseille, Michel Rubirola.

Three years almost to the day after the resignation of the former mayor of Marseille, the ecologist Michèle Rubirola, the Renaissance president of the Provence-Alpes-Côte d’Azur region Renaud Muselier sparked controversy by declaring, Thursday December 14, that his successor, the socialist Benoît Payan, had achieved a “political feminicide”.

“Benoît Payan has undeniable know-how, he committed political feminicide somewhere by quietly eliminating Ms. Rubirola in a personal strategy that had been fabricated for a while,” explained Renaud Muselier on Thursday on BFM Marseille. “It’s a reality, you have a green woman, a doctor, who was elected by the Marseillais, and who was eliminated by a white male at that time. It’s a political reality,” he continued.

Tuesday December 15, 2020, six months after her election, Michèle Rubirola, the first woman elected at the head of France’s second city, announced that she “left office” and wanted to exchange his place as mayor of Marseille with his first deputy, the socialist Benoît Payan.

“The words are his, but the facts are there.”

Guest of France Bleu Provence Friday morning, Catherine Pila, LR president of the opposition group “An ambition for Marseille” at the municipal council supported the words of Renaud Muselier. “We know Renaud Muselier, he’s a sanguine person, he doesn’t mince his words and that’s also why we appreciate him,” she explains. “These words are strong, indeed. But I simply think that they reflect Renaud’s anger at seeing Marseille decline day by day, and this decline is due to the inaction of Benoit Payan and his team. So the words to him belong, but the facts are there.”

Former mayor Michèle Rubirola, now first deputy of Marseille, reacted on X: “The meaning of the words is essential, femicide is the assassination of a woman because she is a woman. I am still here politically, for Marseille, and alongside the State to open an HSA ([une halte soins addictions] and not a RenaudMuselier shooting room). Supported, I apply the program!”

His group, Printemps marseillais, declared on “misappropriating the term ‘feminicide’ to use it for political purposes, Renaud Muselier is guilty of an unacceptable fault. Instrumentalizing the murders of women is abject and unworthy of an elected official of the Republic. The words have one direction.”

“A balance sheet and a budget poor in achievements”

Benoît Payan will present the 2024 budget on Friday evening, 1.9 billion euros, including 500 million euros of investment spending, without increasing taxes, recalls France Bleu Provence. The right-wing group “An ambition for Marseille” “will abstain on the budget vote. We cannot associate ourselves with what will be the balance sheet or the absence of balance sheet of the mayor and the Marseille Nupesbelieves Catherine Pila. This reflects Benoît Payan’s mid-term report, there is a lot of communication, a lot of announcements, but ultimately it is a report and budget poor in achievements. For example, the schools which have been inaugurated three years ago are schools which were initiated by Jean-Claude Gaudin [ancien maire de Marseille]. What does the majority have to offer, apart from bread and games, the Marseille summer ? Few things“.

On the major events organized in Marseille, the opponent of the municipal council retorts that “the Olympic Games are like the coming of the Pope, that is not to the credit of Benoît Payan, it has been underway for many years and the Olympics are not to the credit of the current municipal team “.