After Nicolas Sarkozy, a hundred Northerners and Picardy elected ask you to take the lead in the right list for the regional. You’ve made your decision?
I am running for president of this new large area.
What led you to take this decision at this point in the political calendar?
This decision has imposed itself. I believe that this new large area is a historic opportunity to turn his back on the decline. After all these difficult years, this is the opportunity for a fresh start. We are at the end of a cycle with a political system out of breath. It’s now or never! If it were not for this merger I would not be a candidate in Picardy. And then I hear these appeals for unity. I think I have the experience, the ability to collect. I rooting. Here is my land, I grew up, I worked not only as elected. I come from the private sector. I see the great potential and because it’s my area I want to invest myself fully even though I know it will be a tough fight.
There are a year during the municipal election of Saint-Quentin, your list was called “The selection of Saint-Quentin.” You said that the mayor’s mandate was the most beautiful that you would surrender to your MP. You have changed your mind?
I say clearly, if I am elected, I will leave the National Assembly, elected I will stay in Saint-Quentin. This choice of Saint-Quentin, I continue to do it as a candidate to head the region. Between the functions of MPs and local elected, so I choose to stay local politician.
The name of Jean-Louis Borloo has been circulating for a while. This assumption is it definitively excluded?
I saw him, I asked him clearly, and he said he would not be a candidate to head the region. Attached to this region, it would have been a good candidate who also knew how to make the union. But it is totally involved in a great project for energy in Africa. In time, I have no doubt that he will announce his support.
Nicolas Sarkozy insisted that you are a candidate, is a way for him to rule out a candidate primary for the presidential election? Will you withdraw your application to this primary?
The support of my party, it is important. And will continue to be a candidate in the primary in order to bring my convictions nationally. No one represents the social Gaullism and séguinisme. It’s not because I’m going to run for the area I’m going to lose my freedom of speech to the UMP. This region has developed with politicians who had at national level, as Mauroy. Regional president. I will not do things by halves. The question of choice arises … if I am elected President of the Republic!
A possible defeat would jeopardize your application for the UMP for the next presidential primary?
I am going to win and I will win. Those who know me know I do not bathe by dipping only one toe, even if the water is cold.
Why accelerate the announcement of the nomination before the departmental elections in late March?
Many elected prompted me to make known my decision now, without waiting. The campaign really incurs after the county, certainly, but I want to play cards on the table. When the decision is made, I say. And this decision, I took early January. I answer the call of those elected and activists who are expecting a candidate capable of uniting to win and who has the courage to go. I am the mayor of a large city, I was minister known my energy. I think I am one.
Are you a candidate of the UMP, or beyond?
I want to lead a union list, with IDU with CPNT. I respect their schedule. They have deadlines. This union, we need to win and save the region. I had the opportunity to talk with Jean-Christophe Lagarde, with Létard at different times.
Who will be your second list?
The first project, the responsibilities then. I of course ideas about the composition of the list. It takes a true renewal. The list will not be made as outgoing regional councilors. I want to rely on the new mayors. There are dozens of cities in this great region, not just in the Nord-Pas-de-Calais, wanted to turn the page of the Socialist Party in the last municipal. These mayors enthusiasm and also the confidence of their people. There will be representatives of civil society. You will also surprises.
What place do you imagine for example Gerald Darmanin, one of your most active supporters?
We talked. He decided to devote himself fully to Tourcoing. He has a sense of responsibility for his city. But he loves his region and agreed to be volunteer director of my campaign. I thank him.
Do not you regrettez- not to face Martine Aubry and is not Le Pen which casts doubt on his candidacy?
I have the courage to face this challenge because I believe this new large area. If the Socialist Party believed in victory, Martine Aubry would be a candidate, or else people like Patrick Kanner and Frédéric Cuvillier would. It is true that the words of the socialist leaders towards Picardy injured and that the Picards always in memory. As for Madame Le Pen, if she believed in the region, it would be a candidate. One feels embarrassed. I assume. We can not talk about the courage to do if one does not have the courage to present itself-even.
You see Peter Saintignon as an easier opponent?
My enemy is the decline. There are those who have caused the decline, the PS. And there are those who would exacerbate the decline, the National Front.
Marianne poll this week instead Marine Le Pen led the first round of the presidential election, that he prefigures a navy blue wave in the departmental and regional?
I am not a man to be afraid. Aisne is the department where the FN’s score is the strongest. But no battle is already lost. I meet the challenge. I go for this couple who told me during a greeting ceremony at Prémesques in Lille: “You will not let them win? “
If you arrive in third position, with a chance of winning the FN, what will you do?
I will be the first and the second round with the same project with the same list, things are clear. With PS we do not have the same balance sheet, not the same project, not the same list. There is nothing worse than confusion.
Why would you not have been the only candidate in the Picardie region?
The ripple effect of Lille is the chance that changes everything. For example, Compiegne University of Technology will be able to offer new opportunities to its students, but also brings new formations in Nord-Pas-de-Calais. In Picardy, no this locomotive.
Do you believe in a citizen start after the events of January and to renewed participation?
Everything will depend on the attitude of policy. Is what they will live up to the expectations of the French? The rise of abstention and the extreme, it is simply because the French expect three things from their leaders: a long-term vision, concrete results and exemplary. I will ask elected officials to engage in a charter to be visible and to keep the link between the territory and population.
Is there not also a request the French of another way of doing politics, less caricatured with a consensus, for example on employment policy?
How to agree on use with those who offer nothing, the National Front, and those who have made the situation worse, the Socialists? We will not pretend to agree. This is how the confusion arises extreme advantage.
The latest regional in 2010, abstention was still very strong. The concept of large area will does not further alienate voters
That’s why I get involved today in this campaign: it is not a question of arrive at the last moment. We’ll have to explain why it is a candidate, the Opal Coast to southern Oise, Picardy side up Thiérache. It will be a close campaign. Abstention is not inevitable.
Why this great new Nord-Pas-Calais Picardie she would be more consistent that the merger between Picardy and Champagne-Ardenne?
You know the distance between the Langres plateau and the Picardy coast! The history, geography, demographics speak for themselves. These are references that do not lie. We will be the third region of France. This is a historic opportunity. This will allow us to have a new ambition. European close our international potential that many companies have already entered, this is what we will continue to develop. It is also for this reason that we need a strong metropolis with structuring projects souderont this vast region. I think of the Seine-Nord Canal. We will stop talking about it and we will do so.
Seine Nord, you have no doubt about the commitment of the government?
It also requires that the region speak clearly and one voice. So far, between Nord-Pas-de-Calais, Picardy and part of the second question of France, we can not say that this was the case. Here we have a president who will speak with one voice with the state and with Europe, and believes in this project.
On the RER between the metropolis and the mining area, you are in the line of Daniel Percheron!
I acknowledge Daniel Percheron a real commitment to its region. And I know that this project was controversial in his family. But many people of good sense also agree with this idea. A much stronger link between the metropolis and the mining area is also interesting for Lesquin airport for Arrageois to Picardy. All of this is consistent.
What are your priority commitments for the region?
employment. This will be the number one skill, so the priority. In the new law, we must know that we do not yet know all specific skills. The government even when everything is upside down. That said, we will engage in this parliamentary debate in the hope that the dice are not loaded, there will not be partisan reflexes. From the moment we made the choice of large areas, it is necessary to equip them with necessary skills to succeed and a tax system that also allows us to show that we can do things without raising taxes. The French are tightening their belts, while the regional council will also have to tighten the belt on its operation. The lifestyle of today, it’s over. If you can make savings on the operation, you can invest, having structuring projects and promote employment.
There is also the question of the quality and safety of transport. We will work quickly to implement everything that falls within the regional council a transport police.
On health, we are the area where there is the greatest disparities in access to care . There must be a strong project related professionals and communities.
There will be other projects but I’m waiting to know what will be exactly the skills. I realize that there are challenges ahead.
Reduce the lifestyle, this means including not replacing all departures?
Yes , retirements will not all be replaced. It will be also watch how the two regional councils. We do not merge two regions not to make savings!
Do you really have as President of Region, new levers to act on employment and economic development?
In the field of continuing education and learning, it will be the Region to do and there will not be any excuse not to do. This implies to invent a new mode of operation. Regions are currently too Administrative too technocratic, too compartmentalized. We’ll have to create a new ecosystem to encourage business development. I want to break this operation where the policy decides everything, organize everything. This is contrary to what the country needs today. “We have to stop pissing French,” said Georges Pompidou. I agree with that. On economic development, we must trust those who know how. With policies to create the conditions for this development. Being at the head of a large region, it will also be a way to influence the national debate.
The Regional Council of Nord-Pas-de-Calais just increasing its debt When one of Picardy ends his term “family man”, how do you bring these two regions in terms of management?
It should reduce the lifestyle of regions and operating expenses. Must be managed in a good family man and tighten their belts. I take the commitment not to raise taxes.
You stood for Lille capital of the vast region. What place for Amiens, Beauvais or Saint-Quentin?
The day after the vote, I said this is Lille was to be regional capital. I go even further administrative capital too. We will not go see them elected in Lille and the State also makes no sense. Next, we’re going to invent a new way of working for the city is Lille but the region is not as Lille. I know there are also a number of cities that do not have city status, which must find their place. We must reason completely new way, almost from scratch. I already have ideas in mind but it’s still a bit early to talk about it.
Some of the Oise elected as Eric Woerth feel much as the Paris Picardy and even less northerners. How will you convince them?
I know I have to convince the Picards, elected officials and population, the new region is not going away more but to allow a fresh start. This is not the geographical location of the capital that matters is the dynamic. Though many of the Oise elected supporting me it is because they want to maximize the benefits of this new large area. We have to manage to do more and better with this great area we knew how in the Picardy identity.
Do you already have a name to propose for this new region
The name, logo and communication costs that go with it, sorry, it is my lower priority than employment and economic development! This is not a taboo subject, I have ideas, but my priority is jobs, jobs, jobs!
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