Full sun on Square Aragon, in Pau. On December 17, the temperature is flirting with 15 degrees, the Christmas Ferris wheel turns under the azure sky, right on axis, in the middle of the wooden chalets. In the background, the snow-covered Pyrenees range catches the eye of joggers…
Paris Match returned the Pau postcard to question the Bayrou method, appointed eight days ago to Matignon. Self-proclaimed cantor of compromise, is the new Prime Minister, a lifelong centrist, working with everyone, locally, or is this just wishful thinking? How are the first complicated steps of the madré Béarnais perceived?
“He needs to move to promote his city”
Let's put aside the question of the balance sheet right away. Bayrou was re-elected in 2020, and even the municipal opposition recognizes that a certain number of positive things have been done (the Halles, the train station, a cultural center, a bus network, etc.), although too expensive (the debt has almost doubled).
No, to understand François Bayrou Prime Minister, you have to be interested in the functioning of the mayor and president of the agglomeration, communities that he leads with his faithful right-hand man Jean-Louis Peres, first deputy and vice-president of Pau Agglomération. It is he who will keep the shop, and will regularly discuss with the mayor-Prime Minister, by video, the guilty pleasure of municipal governance Bayrou. “In these cases, there is a tight group around him, the general director, the chief of staff, one or more directors depending on the subject and the first deputy” explains a City executive. Municipal commissions are also held by video. “We have already been operating like this since 2014,” explains Jean-Louis Peres, “François Bayrou is party president and therefore regularly goes to Paris. He is at the town hall on Monday and Friday. But it's not a subject, it's like a business leader, he needs to move to promote his city. »
François Bayrou is not a man of compromise, he has vertical management similar to that of Emmanuel Macron
Jérôme Marbot, leader of the Pau opposition (PS)
So much for the organization. What about working with other political forces?
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“François Bayrou is not a man of compromise, he has vertical management similar to that of Emmanuel Macron, tackle Jérôme Marbot, leader of the municipal opposition (PS). He is a municipal Jupiter, with a tight team around him who executes and he who decides alone…” Is he not keeping the debate alive, as he said again on Monday, December 16, during the last municipal council? “He knows how to hear, listen to opinions, insights, but not to consult,” continues the same person. What he decides cannot be called into question. The discussion is descending with the people of Palois. As part of the renovation of a priority district of the city (Zaragoza), a large building was destroyed and its residents, some of whom have lived there for forty years, were warned by letters…”
The town hall of Pau, on the evening of the controversial municipal council, the Prime Minister's official sedan being parked just in front of the entrance.
© F.B
“On the renovation of the priority district of Zaragoza, he took into account what was said in the citizens' council, it was done more through co-construction,” explains a woman from Paloise. He walks on three legs: business, human, public. » “This is the only counter-example where he has gone back a little, pushed by the citizen collective…” replies Marbot.
JI saw the “wise” side, taking the time to learn and pass on, to nourish myself
Laurent Jubier, former opposition politician who joined Bayrou's majority
The virulent left-wing opposition has seen two representatives leave it in recent months to join Bayrou's majority… “It's the attraction of power, they had differences with the opposition elected officials” justifies their former leader. “Pau is a laboratory for the left, where LFI became hegemonic early on, so I started by moving away,” responds Laurent Jubier, ex-PS and first elected official to have joined the Pau majority at the start of 2023, followed a few years ago weeks by another elected official and soon by a third. “I found Bayrou in a position of dialogue and openness compared to the first mandate, where he went faster,” continues Jubier. He didn't come to get me. And I saw the “wise” side, taking the time to learn and transmit, to nourish myself. He does not rush, but also knows how to decide and has already formed the arc from the Socialists to the Republicans, in his team. There is a real right/left hybridization in him; local/national. »
“Bayrou has always only governed with the right and has never reached out to the socialists, locally,” continues Marbot, not convinced. I am appalled by his first steps where his first project is to talk again about the accumulation of mandates, it is dated! » “He wants to reconnect local elected officials with national power,” Jubier still defends. And the province in power. He doesn’t do anything randomly…”
So what lessons can we reasonably draw from the Pau example to try to design a Bayrou method, nationally? Beyond the issues and a different degree of politicization, the most notable difference is also the most obvious. François Bayrou was elected twice by his constituents, when his national legitimacy, at the head of a party which has a group of 36 deputies out of 577, is much more questionable. And will perhaps end up bringing him down?
