We felt the tense atmosphere of this metropolitan council. While the work of the assembly was to begin at 10 a.m., Thursday November 7, 2024, it was an hour late that Christian Estrosi went to sit in his chair as president. After a working meeting with a certain number of the 51 mayors who constitute the urban community… but not all!
“You trample on the principles of this assembly”
A sidelining denounced at midday by the chief magistrate of the town of Cap-d'Ail. “You trample on the founding principles of this assembly”launched Xavier Beck to Christian Estrosi, accusing him of having held a council of mayors [la réunion préparatoire à la séance] without the elected officials who, last July, refused to sign the charter of confidence demanded by the president of the Nice-Côte d'Azur Metropolis.
A commitment, against a backdrop of rivalry with Eric Ciotti, that a certain number of mayors consider as a “blank check” to Christian Estrosi.
Thus, Xavier Beck or the mayor of Villefranche, Christophe Trojani, and that of Tourrette-Levens, Bertrand Gasiglia, had announced that they would refuse to vote on the transfer of the financing of the future convention center on the port of Nice from the budget of the City to that of the Metropolis.
But it is not only this deliberation, on the agenda this Thursday, which ignited the powder. Christian Estrosi's response was very poorly received.
“It was you who decided to follow the extreme right”
“It was not me who destroyed the cohesion of this assembly but those who, by choice or by following, decided to follow the arc of the extreme right”launched the president, explaining that he had simply gathered his majority.
Nevertheless “unacceptable” for 18 elected officials who decided to stand up and leave the council. Like the mayor of Gattières, Pascale Guit-Nicol. “I feel insulted”she insisted outside the Mediterranean University Center (CUM) where the debates are taking place. “I am angry because I do not share the ideas of the National Front at all and associating myself with that is a strategic error on the part of the President of the Metropolis.”
The configuration of the hemicycle was modified this Thursday. The non-signatories of the charter of confidence had been grouped together and placed to the right of Christian Estrosi, just below the benches occupied by the far-right elected officials.
