Why did it take so long to announce your candidacy?
“Actually, it took me a while to announce it, but the decision had already been made for some time. Quite simply because I like to do things in order. I have a responsibility to Minister who is important. We are in a period of crisis. We had to manage the question of the gas crisis because of Ukraine. And then we also have a big issue of reindustrialisation, climate change. I wanted to go to the end of my mission before embarking on this campaign for re-election.”
Are you still aiming for a ministerial post in the future government that Emmanuel Macron will soon have to present?
“You know, when I say that I am fully committed, I intend to fully commit myself to this campaign and to be elected again, so that the Samarians decide to choose me and therefore I will dedicate myself to that. What concerns the government is not my responsibility. It will be the President of the Republic and the Prime Minister who will decide. But what I can tell you is that what I am doing for the ecological transition and above all for a fair ecological and social transition, it’s something I can do in lots of different places. I currently have a ministerial post which is extremely broad and the President of the Republic has chosen, and I am delighted, to entrust the future Prime Minister with the management of the ecological transition. It’s a good signal, it shows that it’s going to be one of the priorities for the next five-year term and it’s very important because this transition will take place in the territories. He will also see himself in Amiens. We’re going to have entire industries that we’re going to straighten out. We are going to recreate new jobs, when are we going? I think that today, around Amiens, we have a lot of automotive subcontractors. And the automobile will change all that. It will have consequences on our territories and therefore that it is the Prime Minister who takes control of it, I think it is a very good signal. So you see, if it’s not me who takes care of it, but a Prime Minister who is in charge and who will take it much higher, me, that’s fine with me. So once again, there are plenty of ways to make the ecological transition and I am absolutely not concerned about my personal case. “
Don’t the people of Amiens see you as a Parisian, as someone from afar, from their own concerns?
“No. Personally, I have always considered that the work of an MP was to be a link, it was to be a transmission belt between what is happening on the ground and what is decided in the laws. What is decided by the government. It is not a local elected representative, a deputy, it is not a mayor, a deputy, it is someone who is on the ground to understand and listen to the problems and to bring them back to Paris to try to move things forward. And in addition, if obviously, we can help our territory at the same time, as I have always tried to do too, for example with the Cosserat wasteland, you know, this wasteland which we can see that it is being reborn from its ashes and that there are a lot of activities that are being set up. It is also because I relayed with others this question of wasteland which is which exists everywhere in our country and which is useless and which can be reused to recreate employment, to recreate housing. And it is thanks to that that we have a wasteland which is now used by all elected officials. You see, it’s really this work of transmission that must be done. And I believe that also, having someone who has been a minister, who knows everyone, it also has weight to convey a certain number of messages.