Re-election : will Frédéric Béatse miss the "Point"?

According to an analysis published by Le Point, the weekly magazine, there is, for Angers, a medium chance to swing from left to right after the next municipal polls planned in less than a year. The French weekly recalls that in 2008 the former Angers mayor, Jean-Claude Antonini, had only won with a narrow margin against his challenger, Christophe Béchu. Will the current mayor, Frédéric Béatse, who took office after Mr Antonini's resignation for health reasons in 2012, will go beyond the 50.61% the previous mayor got six years ago? According to Le Point, the game is far from being over for Mr Béchu, president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire and senator of that department.

The current opposition wants to seize an opportunity after more than 35 years of socialist city council. At the beginning of 2013, that one published, under the title "Angers danger", a list of growing difficulties in population, employment, economy and standard of living that the majority "is inclined to forget or to misrepresent". One of the fiercest critic of the minority, pointed out by Le Point, is the tramway : "With a multiplication times two between the announcement (€ 173 millions) and the delivery (€ 343 millions), i.e. € 28 millions /km, the Angers tramway is one of the most expensive of France. Such a misdemeanour casts doubt upon the ability to implement a second line" (Even if the opposition launched a curious idea about of a half tramway line!).

According to Le Point, "the balance of city hall is not radiant" and the probality for Mr Beatse to be the next mayor could have been weakened after the open conflict with his deputy-mayor, Jean-Luc Rotureau, who failed to make primaries necessary. That incident could leave marks inside the majority voters in the months to come. And the opposition wants to make good use of that.