Toulouse: “Valérie Pécresse held in support of the mayor of the 4th largest city in France”
Jean-Luc Moudenc, the mayor of Toulouse has chosen to sponsor and support the candidacy of Valérie Pécresse for the presidential election “because she is the candidate who carries the values closest to mine” …
Why did you find it necessary to bring your sponsorship to Valérie Pécresse?
The law stipulates that in order to be a candidate for the presidential election, the sponsorship of 500 mayors must be gathered. Without necessarily being a support, it is the democratic guarantee to avoid the multiplication of folk candidates. Whether he gives his sponsorship or not, whether it expresses support or only the will to defend a certain majority, each mayor must remain free of his choice.
For my part, I decided to grant my sponsorship, synonymous with support, to Valérie Pécresse because she is the natural candidate of my political family and our convergences of values are numerous. She’s a friend, I’ve known her for a long time and I appreciate her, especially for her ability to breathe new life into our country. If she will have no difficulty in bringing together the 500 sponsorships for her candidacy, she told me her attachment to the support of the mayor of the 4th largest city in France, the most important city with a mayor from our political family.
During the primaries, you were in favor of Michel Barnier, a symbol of the European Union, aren’t you afraid that Europe will be the great forgotten one with Valérie Pécresse?
I would first like to say that the Republican congress primary was a great success. The five candidates were able to debate in a respectful, constructive manner, with a good level, highlighting very strong convergences. If Michel Barnier had my preference in the first round of this primary, in particular because I valued his European and international experience, as well as his strong political maturity, for the second round, I had obtained my support for Valérie Pécresse, who is the candidate who carries the values closest to mine. I have absolutely no doubts about Valérie Pécresse’s European convictions, without falling into “euro naivety”. Moreover, she is very well surrounded with personalities like Michel Barnier or François-Xavier Bellamy. She will be a French president up to European challenges, even though this is where fundamental policies on the environment, security or the economy are played out.
The Republican Party seems to have regained some color with the process of the primaries, but isn’t it leaning too far to the right?
Originally, the Union pour un Mouvement Populaire (UMP) brought together political figures from Gaullist, liberal and centrist political families. As you know, I myself come from the centrist and Christian Democrat family, and I believe that for 20 years, the values that I carry have been respected within this gathering. So, naturally, when there is a gathering, there are necessarily different sensibilities which coexist and express themselves. If I do not always agree with the positions taken by some who stray a little too far from my center-right position, I nevertheless note that there still exists in this party an internal democracy sufficiently strong to allow everyone to assert their values, of course within the framework of individual and collective loyalty. Finally, I would add that more than 60% of activists voted in favor of a line of balance embodied by Valérie Pécresse, which is proof that Les Républicains remain the party of the right and the center. In law, this question of “right-wing” is raised because our candidate and our political family display a strong will and a renewed reality in the field of the fight against insecurity and the control of immigration. This labeling is a shame because the essential strengthening of republican authority should bring together all government formations, whether they are from the right, the center or the left.
If Valérie Pécresse won, would you be ready to enter the government?
At each presidential election, I am asked the question if I am ready to enter the government in the event of the victory of the candidate that I support… Would it be a necessary step when one is mayor of the 4th largest city in France? The Toulousains did me the honor of transforming their confidence in me in June 2020, and I therefore owe them my commitment alongside them. Mayor of Toulouse remains for me the most beautiful of mandates. And I will not undertake any maneuver in the but to enter the government … I leave that to others! What I can assure you is that I will watch with great pugnacity that the interests of Toulouse and its metropolis hear through the next government resulting from the presidential and legislative elections.