After more than 60 years of political life where he piled up the various hats of elected official, Jacques Valade gives himself in his work “Unexpected itinerants“(Ed. Le Bord de l’eau) which appears in early November. Presented in the form of an interview with the Bordeaux political scientist Jean Petaux, the work crisscrosses part of Gironde political history through the prism of career of Nansouty’s child. Jacques Valade was deputy, senator, president of Gironde departmental council and Aquitaine regional council but above all Minister of Higher Education and Research.
A political life started in 1970 thanks to a phone call
He receives us in his house – the decoration of which suggests a pronounced taste for Asia – to evoke his entry into the National Assembly. “Chaban-Delmas’ phone call to the Cap-Ferret gendarmerie who was looking for me through an advertisement on the loudspeakers to encourage me to go to the station to call him. I was on vacation at Canon, on the peninsula. This is how I was appointed substitute for the post of deputy!“, laughs the nonagenarian.
I considered, and Chaban-Delmas the first, that I was a potential successor – Jacques Valade
His only regret, which he does not verbalize as such, is that of never having entered the Palais Rohan. Alain Juppé will precede him to succeed Jacques Chaban Delmas as mayor of Bordeaux. In this book, he looks back on how the future Prime Minister has beaten him up. “I have no regrets. Of course, I was Chaban’s assistant for 20 years (as deputy to the deputation then as deputy mayor of Bordeaux, Editor’s note) with mutual trust. I considered, and Chaban-Delmas the first, that I was a potential successor.“
He does not deny the “personal and political conflict“but does not fail to emphasize the belly dance of his mentor when appointing his heir.”He postpones the deadline to better circumvent those who could thwart his designs and his calendar“, writes Jacques Valade about Jacques Chaban-Delmas
His look at the disintegration of the current political class
If this long interview transpires respect for the one who led Bordeaux for 47 years, a man with a “exceptional political sense“(p.74), Jacques Valade is less rave about the current players in political life. The latter does not particularly shoot his political family – the traditional right – but rather on a cast which is, for him, a stopgap. “It is the decay of the political class, for reasons which are due to the time which has passed. It should also be noted that there is a lack of major politicians anywhere: on the left as well as on the right and even on the extremes.“
It is the decay of the political class – Jacques Valade
He goes on to take examples that stand out for him: “It lacks eminent personalities like De Gaulle, Pompidou, Mitterrand Sarkozy and Chirac, it is obvious.”