Frédéric Béatse reduces political differences with Jean-Luc Rotureau

Au fur et à mesure que le premier tour des élections municipales va s'approcher, les candidats auront de plus en plus d'occasions de se différencier les uns des autres. Interrogé par Ouest-France, Frédéric Béatse a gommé ses différences politiques avec Jean-Luc Rotureau, son adversaire de gauche et souligné que la tactique de celui de droite reposait sur une volonté de clivage sur tous les sujets tels que le projet Rives Nouvelles ou le tramway.

As the 1st round of municipal elections is getting closer, Angers medias try to make appear some differences between candidates and to push them into criticizing the platforms of their adversaries. Frédéric Béatse was interviewed on February 24th by the daily Ouest-France and first tried to fill his political differences with his left challenger Jean-Luc Rotureau.


The candidate tried to make understand to Mr. Rotureau's supporters they will not have other choice than to vote for himself on the second round. After a recent poll noticed that, on the left, scores were largely in his favour (30% for the current Angers mayor and 14% for his former deputy-mayor), Frédéric Béatse said that his score and the one of Mr. Rotureau "were not tight but important, unlike what had been said". Regarding the political standpoint, Mr. Béatse said he "didn't see a major difference between him and Mr. Rotureau on a wide array of issues, except the one of the global vision of Angers future".

The main reproaches were aimed at Christophe Béchu, the conservative candidate, Frédéric Béatse analyzed that his challenger was attempting, "about the Maine New Banks scheme, as on other projects, to split from his challengers in order to become audible during the electoral campaign. it was also the case with the tramway. That is rather reassuring because, regarding the river settlements, our project is the only one to be elaborated. The pieces of the puzzle are starting to fit together".

The current mayor was also questioned about the Technicolor case and, if he admitted "not to be sure of the success or the failure of the completion of the policy aiming at a new industrialization of the site", pointed out that "the choice that have been made about the buyback of the area illustrated a political will which is said to be lacking in public life". Mr. Béatse also unveiled a part of his character, saying that he "didn't seek to be loved by everyone and that the mayor office, as a soccer referee, needed a strong mindset".