It is a General Council session which will leave its mark on Boudry. Monday evening, the legislature was called to elect the replacement for the resigning Gilles de Reynier who left his position as municipal councilor at the end of October for health reasons. The PLR had chosen last week, among several interested people, to present Pascal Pedimina, member of the Boudrysan general council. But in the end, nothing went as planned.
Politics in Boudry is like that old American series and its song: Dallas, your merciless universe. For the occasion, the performance hall which hosted this extraordinary meeting of the General Council lived up to its name. After an hour of studious presentation of the local development plan, the appointment of a member to the Municipal Council arrives on the agenda. And that's when you had to bring some popcorn. The entrepreneur Pascal Pédimina is presented by his group leader, Delio Musitelli, who highlights his strengths for the Municipality. “His professional experience, but also political. A man with indisputable technical expertise, 12e best elected to the General Council during the last Communal elections, all parties combined. »
Dramatic twist
Then comes the surprise… Sitting in the same row, the liberal-radical Stéphane Keller, not very comfortable, gets up and speaks to announce the candidacy of Pascal Chapuisod. He describes him “as a child of Boudry who has no conflict of interest with the Commune. » The tone is set. A surprise, unexpected proposition, at least for the journalists present. The president of the socialist group, Nicolas Rousseau, then requested a suspension of the session, citing “a proposal which embarrasses his party”. Twenty minutes later, the PS clarified that it left its members the freedom to vote. The ballot boxes are taken out and the 41 members of the General Council vote by secret ballot. Result: the “free” candidate Pascal Chapuisod obtained 23 votes and won an absolute majority in the first round. For the latter, despite the fact that his candidacy did not obtain a majority during the internal PLR session last week, “it was now or never. » Although a substitute general councilor, in his eyes, his election to the executive is legitimate. “Out of 6,400 inhabitants, being a substitute general councilor means having already participated in an election. And it's open to everyone, it's not necessary to be a general advisor or substitute. »
Potential conflicts of interest which certainly weighed in the balance
For his part, Pascal Pedimina, certainly a little bitter, accepts his defeat. But does he feel betrayed by part of his PLR group or more broadly by the General Council? “No, no,” he replies. “It’s politics, we know how it happens. »
As for the potential conflicts of interest mentioned by some, Pascal Pedimina specifies: “There are mandates from the Municipality which are carried out via my company (2P+ Management). And depending on the dicastery that I would have had, perhaps I would have eventually had a double hat. But in this situation, I don't think that was the case, because we could very well have framed the mandates, contractually established for many months, and which will soon end. We could have easily answered this problem. »
A Boudry PLR in bad shape
At the end of this session, the unease was clearly perceptible within the ranks of Boudry's PLR. The scars of the campaign on the Basse-Areuse merger project which had so divided the members of the local section still seem very much alive. This is what Delio Musitelli, the president of the liberal-radical group in the General Council, thinks, who had difficulty analyzing the situation after this stunning blow.
It will now be up to the section committee to determine the follow-up and whether the newly elected Pascal Chapuisod will still represent the official colors of Boudry's PLR. /jpp
