The "Angevins situation", first challenger of the main candidates to mayor office

Les deux principaux candidats aux fonctions de maire d'Angers, Frédéric Béatse et Christophe Béchu, ont été les premiers à présenter leur liste. Mais cela ne veut pas pour autant dire qu'ils ont une longueur d'avance sur les autres candidats. Au cours de la dernière semaine de janvier, leurs projets respectifs ont été tous les deux contestés. Ils devront, ainsi que les autres candidats, bien intégrer les conséquences économiques de leurs propositions sur la situation des Angevins.

If the two main candidates to Angers mayor office were the first to publish the list of their running mates, that doesn't mean everything is under control. The first in the starting blocks was Christophe Béchu but his offer of a second tramway line going through the La Doutre district has triggered a protest from the local store owners who do not want to face the eonomic difficulties their companions of down town recorded during the works of the first line. The second ready to go the town hall conquest was Frédéric Béatse who presented his running mates this week but that one faced, at the ultimate moment, an explicit disagreement about the amount of the city investments for 2014 by, his deputy-mayor in charge of finances, André Despagnet, who choose to rally Jean-Luc Rotureau, the direct challenger of the current mayor.

These two events mean that, for the tow main pretenders, there is nothing gained. Mr. Béchu was due to turn back and pointed out that all future advances in that topic would be achieved thanks to "dialogue". "We must meet again, if I am elected to make the scheme go on", said Mr. Béchu after the La Doutre retailers spoke of a "catastrophic project".  Regarding Mr. Béatse, the critics expressed about the costs of important schemes included in the city capital budget for 2014 led him to detail at the end of his programme five commitments devised to reassure voters : if the investment expenses will be promoted, simultaneously "the operating expenses will be lowered" while "the fiscal rates will remained unchanged", the Maine New Banks project implementation will be "staggered in time" and for the second tramway line, the project only mentions a "first stage". In short, on the two sides of the political landscape, the messages delivered to Frédéric Béatse and Christrophe Béchu look to have been received "loud and clear".

The disagreement between the current mayor and deputy-mayor in charge of finances turned out well for Mr. Rotureau who, for weeks, has claimed that a debate about the munucipal finances was necessary. In a recent statement to local medias, André Despagnet complained that "For three or four years, one only think to investments regardless Angevins'situation". That should calm down the promises, but not the mood of the campaign itself.