Like certain tenors of the Republicans, who disagree with the LR-RN alliance desired by their ex-president Éric Ciotti, he too surrenders his party’s card. But the result of the ecologists in Yvelines (5.92%) during the European elections has nothing to do with Lionel Wastl’s decision.
The mayor of Andrésy (13,000 inhabitants) had decided to resign from Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) well before the election on Sunday June 9, 2024. The elected official, who still claims to be “a convinced, pragmatic and non-convinced ecologist ideological” after 15 years in the field, says he is the victim of “a denigration strategy supported by the Nord Yvelines Ecologists”.
The mayor of Andrésy explicitly targets his former deputy Annie Minarik, also an EELV member, who joined the opposition within her municipal council. “Her words and actions have destabilized the municipal majority, justifies the one who joined the party in 2011. She joined a head of the lists who called to vote LR in the last senatorial elections and I asked my local party EELV to choose between an elected member of an executive and an opponent who votes against all of its deliberations. I hoped that this would be resolved before the Europeans, but the party procrastinated a lot and seemed to have opted for a sort of cohabitation… So I decided to resign because the situation had become untenable. »
“Not a big loss for the ecology. »
Last November, Annie Minarik returned her role as deputy delegate for the local, social and solidarity economy, and for management control, due to the mayor’s “autocratic” management of his delegations. At the time, she pointed out “the mayor’s variable geometry facade ecology”.
“Mr Wastl is an opportunist who renounces his convictions against subsidies,” the opposition councilor told us today. He is in denial and must seriously question himself. Since his election, 4 of his deputies and 3 municipal councilors have resigned, which illustrates a major problem of governance and management. This is not a big loss for the ecology. »
Last May, the mayor had accused the opposition of attempted maraboutage in the middle of the municipal council. An opposition councilor presented herself with a bronze statuette representing a hand. “Or when the municipal opposition tries to capture elected officials during the budget vote, by manipulating a “magic” hand in each secret ballot,” Lionel Wastl denounced on social networks.
Beyond the disagreements in his municipality, it seems that his unresolved position on the “hot” issue of the Pont d’Achères contributed to a total break with his former partners at EELV. “At least, that clarifies his position,” concludes Ghislaine Senée, the EELV senator from Yvelines who had nevertheless insisted that the mayor of Andrésy be present on her list during the last Senate elections in September.
The resignation of the only mayor of a town in Yvelines (with more than 10,000 inhabitants) who is an environmentalist comes at a bad time for a party which has a limited contingent of “green” elected officials in Île-de-France.
