Return to the demonstrations in Rochefort and the anger of the @venir Citoyen list and its supporters: the alliance concluded without them by MR-IC and Pour
After the euphoria of the excellent results, the awakening is bitter for the supporters of the “@come citizen” list. At the end of the evening, majority agreements were concluded without them, the big winners of these Rochefort elections. Thierry Lavis, 3rd score this Sunday evening, is disappointed:
This is a denial of democracy. This is why everyone mobilized. We absolutely want to meet Monsieur Defaux, or rather the Faux as I call him now. Sunday evening, he gave us his word that we will be able to negotiate this Monday morning at 9:30 a.m. while during the night, he negotiates with the FOR list.
Among the demonstrators, some Green candidates made the trip, like Françoise Lebeau:
This is the first time I have witnessed this after elections and I have been in Rochefort for forty years. The citizen is right to come forward. We didn’t hear him at the polls, he must be heard elsewhere.
At the origin of the anger were the promises made live on our set, contradicted a few hours later by the announcement of a coalition between the MR-IC list and the POUR list, thus relegating Corine Mullens, best score of the commune, in opposition.
Finally, Corine Mullens and Thierry Lavis manage to secure, in the middle of the College, an interview with Julien Defaux under the gaze of the cameras. The discussion is tense and seems to rekindle deep wounds on both sides.
Defaux: “The problem is Corine Mullens”
The new mayor sticks to his positions and analyzes things quite differently.
If 33% of Rochefort residents voted to become a citizen, 67% did not. This majority will be recognized in the POUR and MR-IC group. We will go together for the next six years. I would have liked this to happen in a more serene climate. There, we come in force, with vehicles to block the road. This looks a bit like the storming of the Capitol by Donald Trump supporters. The problem, I tell you, is Corine Mullens.
The main person still can’t believe the situation:
The signal from citizens was strong in relation to the person they wanted to see at the head of the City. Julien Defaux is only the fourth person from Rochefort and he becomes mayor. You don’t see this anywhere else.
To become a citizen, the battle is not over. The supporters of Corine Mullens have not finished making their voices heard.
To see the full live stream of the event >> click here
Dermagne: “I’m still waiting for a phone call from Corine Mullens”
We have collected the explanation from Pierre-Yves Dermagne, head of POUR’s list, on his change of position between our set on Sunday evening and the announcement of the coalition.
When she left your set, Corine Mullens said she was going to call me in the evening. I haven’t had any phone calls. I got the first one from the MR-IC list inviting us to sit around the table. (…) If she had contacted us, we would of course have gone to the meeting as we did at the invitation of Julien Defaux and his list. (…)
When you have the hand you have to take the hand. We need to make contacts, I regret that she didn’t make them. (…)
I understand the anger and frustration, but we should not minimize what happened. (…) Storming a town hall with war cries and death threats (…) is totally unacceptable.
His full reaction in video:
Antoine Peret, Benjamin Mars, Nicolas Lembrée
