The outgoing MP was re-elected on Sunday in the 7th constituency. A victory on which the RN wants to capitalize.
Your scores have been improving everywhere since your election in 2022. This means you will be re-elected on the 1st.is round. How do you explain this large victory?
There is a national wave, that is undeniable. It is based on our attitude in the Assembly, our respectability, our work, our attire. And then, there are outgoing deputies, like me, who have done field work over the last two years. Two years of going everywhere, welcoming dozens of associations to my office, listening to people and their problems, holding village festivals on weekends…
“We are reaching the end of a cycle for François Commeinhes, the end of a reign”
The participation has clearly shifted to you…
We made +140% in the constituency. I got 17,000 votes in the first round of the 2022 legislative elections, I got 37,000 this time. It goes beyond projections. A majority of the increase in participation is directed towards us. This vote can be described as membership. On the Pézenas market, on that of Sète, where the reception was not good in the past, something clicked. Something happened.
In Sète, you come in first (41.06%) ahead of Gabriel Blasco (34.16%), who won in 2022, and Jocelyne Gizardin (23.33%), despite coming from the municipal majority. Is this a surprise for you?
No, even if we must remain humble. Blasco paid the price for the hysteria of the debates on the part of the extreme left. As for Madame Gizardin, it is the end of a cycle for François Commeinhes, the end of a reign after four terms. The people of Sète are exhausted by that. Politically, the fact of having gotten very, very close to Macronie, it played tricks on them.
Would you talk about voting sanctions against the municipal majority?
It is complicated to compare the elections. What is certain is that this is a real signal for us, for our political strength. We are trusted to represent the people of Sète in the National Assembly, I do not see why we would not be trusted to lead the city.
“If someone calls me, I will think…”
Considering your results, what should be the ambition of the RN in Sète, from 2026?
We are preparing, of course. In the coming months, we will press the button and get into working order. People are joining us, with unexpected profiles that weigh on Sète. I also want to make an appeal to the people of Sète to participate in the alternation, after 23 years of François Commeinhes at the head of Sète.
In some of the more popular offices, like at Île de Thau, you are set back. What is your strategy for speaking to these populations?
On the island of Thau, in two years, I wrote a letter to Darmanin, I spoke in the hemicycle, I brought the national press, I received the associations… We finally made a good score in this neighborhood. We know that their hell can increase, even exceed the borders of the island of Thau. And we won’t let it happen. We had two police reinforcements, it’s not enough. But the prefect carried out the clean-up operation, a subject on which I spoke with him…
Would you be available to embrace a national destiny if Jordan Bardella were appointed to Matignon?
It’s not me who decides. But if someone calls me, I’ll think about it. I have two specialty subjects: fishing and digital technology. Today, no one asks me anything, so that’s not the subject…
What will be your priorities as an MP in the coming months?
The big issue for the start of the school year, if Jordan (Bardella) is appointed, is the organization of the Fishing Conference in Sète. We are going to invite all the French auctions, with their deputies. We are going to build a road map and look at where we can help, from Grau to Sète, via Agde. We must work on the subject of Mediterranean fishing, the risks of auction closures, the disappearance of trawlers, the creation of the boat of the future. I also have an oyster farming subject, on the question of compensation for viruses and bacteria on the Thau lagoon…
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