“Citizens are asking us”it’s necessary “building convergences” with the presidential majority “in the interest of the French and our country”said Sunday, July 3 on franceinfo Jean-Luc Moudenc, mayor of Toulouse.
>> Follow the political weekend on our live
In a forum shared on social networks and co-signed with twenty other mayors or presidents of local authorities, he called “with force and gravity” the deputies The Republicans to “converge on projects that will move France forward”. These local elected officials are worried “of a risk of blocking the National Assembly” and asks parliamentarians to draw inspiration from the operating methods of local authorities: “We look at what we can pool, not in the interest of our respective parties, but in the interest of our territories”he explains.
franceinfo: Why did you make this appeal?
Jean-Luc Moudenc: For the huge problems we have to deal with, what do we do? One cannot only affirm a posture. So, indeed, we want there to be convergences that are built, according to methods determined both by the presidential majority and the LR parliamentarians, so that decisions are taken for the country, for the French.
With signatories from your forum who could join the government?
We are talking to parliamentarians. We are concerned about the risk of blocking the National Assembly and from there the impossibility of deciding. We are more in a message to the National Assembly, a message in relation to the composition of the government. On the other hand, if we think that it is a question of making rallies or making individual choices, it will not work.
At the local level, elected officials from different sides have been working together for a long time. Do you ask MPs to imitate them?
In our communities, we put forward projects, we carry them out without there being any blockage in our local assemblies because everyone remains themselves. We are not asking anyone to join. Simply, we sit around a table, we look at what we can pool, not in the interest of our respective parties, that is not the subject, but in the interest of our territories , our towns, our intermunicipalities, our departments. So why wouldn’t it be possible to do this for the country?
Precisely, why is it so difficult on a national scale?
Quite simply because it is not the French tradition, especially with the Fifth Republic. There is a president, there is a majority and oppositions. We have been working like this for more than 60 years. Except that the French have decided to upset all that. Either we take it into account, or we stay in the patterns before. You have to go to today’s diagrams. Citizens are asking us.
On what subjects would you be ready to get closer to the presidential majority?
It is necessary to open the fundamental debates and to try to move towards convergences in the interest of the country on a case-by-case basis. There is another technique which consists in saying: we need a coalition like in Germany. Except that’s not the French tradition. And then, not many people want it. Nor did I hear many figures from the presidential majority say that a coalition was needed. In the absence of a coalition, let’s take the subjects one by one, but not only to affirm antagonistic positions, but to build convergences in the interest of the French and our country.
Does your position have a link with the departure of your boss Christian Jacob and the choice of his successor?
Our concern is more focused on the coming week, the Prime Minister’s general policy speech and the determination of the positioning of the various groups. Everything concerning Les Républicains will be settled by a congress within a few months. What I can tell you is that none of the signatories on this platform have any ulterior motives vis-à-vis what is going to happen at LR, vis-à-vis this or that personality. . It is not a partisan strategy to know who will succeed Christian Jacob. It is to really challenge parliamentarians for this week that is decisive.