Jean-Luc Rotureau mentions an unfavourable first roud outcome and his belief that will not occur

A deux jours d'intervalle, le candidat à la mairie d'Angers a indiqué qu'en cas de troisième place après le 1er tour, il se retirerait, disant dans le même qu'il ne croyait pas à cette hypothèse. Puis il a présenté la partie centrale de son projet consacré à l'économie fondée sur de nouvelles relations avec les entreprises. La proximité de ces deux annonces ne risque-t-elle pas d'en brouiller le sens?

The last messages of Jean-Luc Rotureau could be a little blurred. "If I'm third. I go out. Except if [the outcome of the 1st round of the municipal elections] is able to go either way. Rotureau, you will never hear talk of him", he said on February 11th. But, two days later, the candidate to Angers mayor office disclosed a central part of  his programme regarding economy.

The promise to definitely back off in case of a third rank, and not defeat, is unusual. Has Mr. Rotureau got the results of an opinion poll? And what his running-mates, and his supporters, will think about it? That position is above all incomprehensible given the candidate predicts he will get between 17 and 20% of the votes, so an opportunity to influence the policy of the next Angers town council.

Another part of his announcement would indicate that, rather than the proportion of votes he would get, it is
the hypothsesis to be behind Frédéric Béatse (the current Angers mayor elected after Jean-Claude Antonini's resignation while Jean-Luc Rotureau thought he was entrusted to get that office) which led him to indicate what he would do. His resentment against Mr. Antonini's heir looks still acute. Morover, such a calculation doest not fit with the rules of elections which state that candidates having more than 10% of the votes may keep going for the second round.

That idea is not especially favourable to Frédéric Béatse because Mr. Rotureau didn't say he would call his supporters to vote for the current mayor. The risk of a loss of votes was not eluded by Luc Belot, current deputy-mayor and running-mate of Frédéric Béatse who said about Jean-Luc Rotureau : "I expect... he will support the left list arrived first [after the first round]". But that is a little bit tactlessly, because Mr. Belot makes reference to the primaries'rules stating that the left candidate arriving in third rank has to withdraw, primaries he had refused.


Jean-Luc Rotureau plans actions to make Angers more attractive and (econo-mically) more lively. He promises he will more largely support the local entrepreneurship and that a new deal between local authorities and companies will be established through regular meetings between the mayor and the managers. About the commerce in down town, the candidate plans to open a covered food market and a new commercial facility in the post office building.