The outgoing MP Philippe Pradal (Horizons), former mayor of Nice, is a candidate for re-election in the north of the city. Solidarity on the one hand with Macron’s results, he warns all the same: it’s over, “Emmanuel Macron will not be the boss of the next majority”.
The third constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes includes the northern districts of Nice, Falicon, Saint-André-de-la-Roche and La Trinité. Horizons is the right-wing party founded by former Prime Minister Edouard Philippe, of which Christian Estrosi is number two.
Your party, Horizons, is distancing itself from President Macron. What will this change?
The presidential majority disappeared on the evening of the dissolution. Horizons is a loyal and free party. We are not abandoning the balance sheet. Good measures have been decided, but they will take time to produce their effects. We haven’t been there everywhere, and some things need to change. In the exercise of power, there was arrogance, with terrible consequences. It partly explains the “sanction vote” of the Europeans. Even as an MP, I felt insufficiently listened to, my warnings sometimes neglected.
I call for the creation of a central bloc, moderate and broad, which would include the social democrats, the center left, up to the conservatives.
The president places “the two extremes” back-to-back, the National Rally and the New Popular Front. You too ?
On the left, extremists dictated the program. We see the shadow of rebellious France. In the agreement with the RN, Les Républicains and Eric Ciotti carry no weight. Jordan Bardella is in charge. Their proposals are unrealistic and irresponsible. I am not leading a campaign based on morality, there is not one side of good and another of evil. We are sold dams, but the French do not have the soul of beavers.
“We must bring the net salary closer to the gross”
On the subject of insecurity, after seven years, Emmanuel Macron’s results are insufficient. Why would this change, when your party participated in its governments?
New means have been mobilized, but all this takes time. When you increase the budget of the national police so that there is more “blue in the streets”, you obviously have to recruit and train the officers. I am not condemning an assessment which seems good to me, but which we have not had time to appreciate. We are judging a 100 meter race that was stopped midway!
Of course the method must change. The Macronists lacked a foothold. The Horizons elected officials, for their part, held local mandates above all. We take a more concrete approach to politics.
On immigration, the feelings we hear are more negative than the reality. The asylum-immigration pact makes it possible to better identify and monitor populations entering the territory. The attitude of the Italian authorities is not always ideal, but we have really made progress.
“People are showing anger: they haven’t been listened to for years”
Unlike the other two blocks, your proposals regarding purchasing power do not print. For what ?
Promising a minimum wage of 1,600 euros, as the left does, is spectacular. It won’t happen, but it’s getting people talking. Instead, let’s bring the net salary closer to the gross salary with a reduction in contributions. We will finance it by making significant savings on social protection.
What do people on the ground tell you?
The contact is good, they come to talk. But they also express an anger, which I share, that of not having been listened to in recent years. I answer that I will be a totally involved MP, very present in Paris to obtain things for my constituency. My nature is to not forget where I come from.
