The elected official (Les Républicains, LR) Fabrice Pannekoucke, 49, was elected president of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes regional council on Thursday, September 5, obtaining 132 of the 135 votes of the majority right-wing group, out of 204 regional councilors. He was knighted by his predecessor Laurent Wauquiez, 49, who was forced to leave his executive post under the law on the non-accumulation of mandates, after being elected deputy of Haute-Loire, on July 7, in the second round of the early legislative elections.
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His succession took place at the end of a discreetly prepared process. The choice of the mayor of Moûtiers (Savoie) was announced the day before to the elected representatives of the LR group, and it came as a surprise. Until now tenth vice-president in charge of agriculture, the elected representative of the Tarentaise valley was not among the candidates expected to succeed the president of the region, in office since 2016, re-elected in 2021. The first vice-president, Stéphanie Pernod, often asked to preside over the hemicycle in the absence of Laurent Wauquiez, or Nicolas Daragon, second vice-president and mayor of Valence, were most often mentioned in the predictions.
“I have complete confidence in Fabrice. This choice was not easy. He is a great personality. He is a local elected official with roots. He corresponds to what I want for the region.”justified Laurent Wauquiez, making it clear that the designation of his successor was his personal decision. “He has succeeded admirably in the missions that I have entrusted to him, in tourism or agriculture. We will continue to work together and I will be at his side to succeed.”added the outgoing president, visibly determined to follow regional policy closely.
Continuity and loyalty
The outgoing president and his designated successor carefully staged the handover. Arriving together, they sat side by side in the chamber, breaking the alphabetical order of seating. During the long sequence of secret ballot voting, they left the chamber, Laurent Wauquiez holding his successor by the shoulder. Once seated in the president’s chair, Fabrice Pannekoucke immediately paid tribute to his predecessor. “I know what I owe him, and what the region owes him. Under his leadership, under his authority, we have become the best managed region in France.”declared the new president of Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, before long minutes of applause from the elected representatives of the regional majority, standing around Laurent Wauquiez, their hands on their hearts.
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