environmentalists launch a “Wauquism” observatory against regional president Laurent Wauquiez

The elected environmentalists of the second region of France have launched a new initiative against the LR president of the region, Laurent Wauquiez.

The environmentalist opposition group at the Auvergne Rhône-Alpes regional council launched its “Observatoire du Wauquisme” on Thursday March 21. Beyond the play on words, according to ecologists it is a matter of “dissect” the politics of President LR Laurent Wauquiez, his “security obsession”his conservative vision and denounce “extreme right-wing” from part of the right.

“It’s not the person we’re targeting, but their policies”assures Noël Mamère, the former deputy who came to support the launch of this observatory. “It’s a tool that goes well beyond Wauquiez”, he says. What is targeted, assures Noël Mamère, “it is the speech he gives and the way in which it has been colonized by the lexicon and grammar of the extreme right, the slow drift which has seized him in the name of a certain form of opportunism”.

Laurent Wauquiez opposes his assessment

Concretely, articles will be posted on the environmental group’s website as well as testimonies from elected officials who may be anonymous. An anonymity which implies that it is not easy to express oneself in a region with clientelist functioning, believes regional councilor Benjamin Joyeux, elected official from Haute-Savoie. “Like favoring one’s friends to the detriment of the general interest, with municipalities which are not close to the political majority and which find themselves a little stripped down, while others benefit fully”denounces the elected official.

For his part, Laurent Wauquiez prefers to ignore. “At this level, I’m not even going to comment. There’s nothing to say”, replies the regional president. Laurent Wauquiez rather boasts of a good record both in terms of security, particularly in stations, and in terms of budget balance. “It’s even the best managed region in France”he maintains. “It allows us to buy train sets and reduce delinquency thanks to video surveillance cameras and railway police teams”argues Laurent Wauquiez. “This is the strength of having a well-managed region”he concludes with the objective of not giving too much weight to the opposition, which is still regional at this stage.