the essential
The mayor of Villeneuve-sur-Lot Guillaume Lepers organized his first campaign meeting in view of the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7. Nearly 150 people came to applaud the candidate of the Republican right.
The general staff of the Republicans in Lot-et-Garonne is there. The president of the departmental federation Gaëtan Malange, senator Christine Bonfanti-Dossat, activists, came to lend their support to the only member of the right party to launch into the battle of these anticipated legislative elections. “Courage is first of all to go there” says Guillaume Lepers to the 150 people gathered in the Michel-Cazassus room this Tuesday evening. “Courage for the territory” is the slogan he chose to rally voters from the Republican right to his cause and embody the relay between the Lot valley and Paris. This lightning campaign, “not an easy adventure” admits the mayor of Villeneuve, but he wants to establish himself as the alternative “between Mélenchon and Le Pen”. But he likes his “outsider” position, and this launch party allowed him to build up his confidence.
First in the choice of his “partner” for these legislative elections, Roquentine Emeline Rey. The desire to “put young people in the saddle”, as others have done for him before. Even though she is new to politics – she has only been a departmental councilor for a few months, after the resignation of Béatrice Giraud – she scored points by putting forward a clear, constructed speech. “We cannot remain indifferent to the unknown of our future,” she says, recalling her career in both the medical and agricultural world. “She has already prepared legislative proposals for me” welcomed candidate Lepers. He also began to put avenues of work into perspective, and above all praised the role of the deputy in the completion of local files.
Community service in the face of petty crime
Today at the heart of the municipal and community machine, Guillaume Lepers expresses his feeling of being an “unhappy mayor, very alone in relaying information to Paris”. This is the essence of his candidacy: to be the best representative of the territory in the Assembly, to be better supported on current issues. He takes the example of the reconversion of the wasteland of the former Saint-Cyr hospital. It is especially on the theme of security that he advances his first pawns. “We acted at the municipal level, with the creation of a night brigade and the doubling of surveillance cameras.” But everything cannot be done at the mayor’s level. “We have to explain it to them up there.” He is thinking in particular of “petty crime, which also affects small villages”. One measure, which would consist of transforming fines for damage on public roads into public works. “Tighten the screw” by ensuring that those who degrade “participate in the clean-up”.
Training, agriculture, old age, the mayor of Villeneuve covers many subjects. It is on that of youth that he ticks, addressing a tackle – and it will be the only one of the evening – to Jérôme Cahuzac. “I hear the term ‘dying territory’. That’s false! Across the city, we are pursuing courageous policies for our youth. Or maybe it’s an observation from the past.” But he promises he will “never talk about the competitors” throughout the campaign. In the public, he is urged to “get his guts out” in this campaign when faced with “a dangerous situation”. “In 9 days, it’s not easy, but I learn quickly, like when I learned to be mayor during Covid” retorts candidate Lepers. It is now up to him to show that he has the makings of the deputy who will carry the 3rd constituency in the aisles of the National Assembly.
