Frédéric Béatse gets the support of Ecologists and tries to enlarge his base on the centre

Fr. Béatse [credit Aimer Angers]

Choosen on October 10th to lead the socialist list to the Angers municipal elections, Frédéric Béatse, current mayor, was immediately supported by the Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts (Eelv) already members of city council. Gathered on October 12th, those decided  to follow the line drawn by the Eelv town councillors and to join Mr. Béatse's supporters. Consecuently, that decision, voted by around 75% of the Angers ecologists, isolates Jean-Luc Rotureau, former deputy-mayor, himself candidate to Angers mayor office.

If one of the components of the centre, the Mouvement démocrate (Modem), decided to strenghen the efforts of Christophe Béchu, president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire-, to conquer the city council, another component of that centre, the Union des démocrates et indépendants, led by Laurent Gérault, looks divided.

One one side, its representative to the city council, Mr. Gérault, toughly criticized recent stances of M. Béatse about the future of a cinema in downtown, the transfer of the skating-rink and a new route for the tramway second line. But, in the same time, a close friend of Michel Piron, president of the Maine-et-Loire section of the Udi, Anthony Taillefait, former law school dean, would join Mr Béchu in his campaign and become his deputy-mayor in charge of finances.

Regarding the contents of Mr. Béatse's programme, that one announced a major change about the future route of the tramway. A survey is going to be launched for a new section on the South side of the Saint-Laud railway station. That idea, which implicitely admits the North side is overloaded with the traffic, could distance Mr. Béatse from Jean-Claude Antonini, president of Angers Loire Métropole, the authority in charge of that scheme, who did't talked about that topic.