Frédéric Béatse and Christophe Béchu from side by side to face to face

Le face-à-face entre Frédéric Béatse et Christophe Béchu a eu, le 26 mars, une toute autre tonalité que celle de leurs interventions précédentes. Les situations des deux candidats, l'un maire sortant, l'autre aspirant maire, expliquent des positionnements différents : Frédéric Béatse misant sur la technicité des projets en cours, Christophe Béchu sur sa volonté de changer le cours des choses. 

After invitations to speak alone, than debates side by side with the other seven candidates, Frédéric Béatse and Christophe Béchu were face to face in a frontal talk which took place on the local tv channel on March 26th. So the tune was rather different compared to the previous electoral meetings. Because Mr. Béatse was in office for the last two years as Angers mayor, because Mr. Béchu was out of the city council from 2008, their standpoints were very different. Frédéric Béatse was rather on a management position with figures, files, schemes while Christophe Béchu was more on a political approach, insisting that "a democratic breathe" is necessary to give the city a new rythm.

Their respective analyses about the tramway was symptomatic of that. For Mr. Béatse, it is impossible to believe that a new route may be deviced because of technical reasons (the time for studies, some of the points already set) while his opponent remarks that the impossibility to change the process "would not be democratic". But, retorted the outgoing mayor "How can we consider the seriousness of your project for the second line after you have changed its route? This is not realistic". The Banks of Maine scheme, even if the two representatives agree about its principle, is an issue of split between them. The Angers outgoing mayor, pointed out that Christophe Béchu's idea to bury the speedway between the Molière square and the castle was "typical of the 70's. Your change is in fact a regress". Mr. Béchu, on a voluntarist register, promised he will, if elected, "use a smaller sail for the boat in order to suppress what is useless".


Those positions between the current mayor and the candidate were also different in the vision of their own future in case of defeat. Mr. Béchu indicated that he "would not sit in the city council" if he were not elected mayor while his adversary answered he "would continue to serve" the city. In case of a promotion to a government office, Christophe Béchu disclosed he "would not take it and stay mayor for six years long". If he said he would leave the Conseil général once elected, he didn't talk about his fate as senator (an office he would be due to leave as member of the government but not as mayor). Frédéric Béatse said he "would answer no to such a proposal and want to dedicate to his office, leaving [his] seat at the Conseil régional".

The conclusion of the show was the most intense when Christophe Béchu attacked his vis-à-vis about a letter that one sent the day before to the abstainers. In that letter, the outgoing mayor warned that "A victory of the right list led by Christophe Béchu would have tough consequences on your daily life. The solidarity and social cohesion would not have meaning anymore". "This is slanderous. How could you sign this letter?", he asked to Frédéric Béatse who considered the content of the letter as "perfectly well-founded".