Angers primaries : left is not all right

Frédéric Béatse

The debate about the interest to organize primaries inside the socialist majority of Angers municipal council is, maybe, already over. After the recent appeal of some Angers inhabitants in favor of a poll between the two socialist candidates to the function of mayor, Frédéric Beatse, present holder, and Jean-Luc Rotureau, his challenger, the French socialist party indicated that a decision in favor of such a scheme is far from being taken.

Jean-Luc Rotureau

There is a real danger for the left side to loose the municipal polls of 2014 in Angers if one of the candidates aforementioned doesn't withdraw his candidacy in spite of a defeat after the primaries. This is not impossible because the conditions of the accession of Mr Béatse to the function of mayor have deeply divided sympathizers inside the Angers left side. And it's not sure, even if the defeated candidate at the primaries gives up, that his voters will grant their votes in favor of the winner. If such an hypothesis comes true, the danger for the left to be defeated by the right is not theoretical.

Christophe Béchu

In the 2008 municipal elections, the left, at that time led by Jean-Claude Antonini, previous mayor who dismissed in 2012 and set up Frédéric Béatse the mayor position, won with a narrow margin over Christophe Béchu, right. If that one retains or even increases his influence among inhabitants, and if the left side is divided by internal primaries at the polling day, the city could then swing over from the left to the right. This could not be the scheme of the socialist party... This debate on the left side recalls another one inside the national right side between the former prime minister, François Fillon and the leader of the previous majority party, Jean-François Copé. The Angers present debate could make the left similar to the right. And maybe such an issue is out of tune with present economic worries of many Angers inhabitants.