"Examination" of the mayor in front of... students

Even if he denied to be involved in the electoral campaign leading to the March 2014 municipal elections, the
debate Frédéric Béatse, Angers mayor, got with the students of Essca has allowed both sides to express their own views about the place of the youth in the city. About 50% Angers inhabitants are under 30, pointed out Mr. Béatse, who, as mayor or candidate to mayor office, can't ignore that characteristic.

A large part of the evening was dedicated to the transportation facilities Angers students need in the future. Regarding the second line of the tramway, Mr. Béatse said that the Belle-Beille campus should be served by 2019. Students suggested that a VéloCité station should be set up next to their university and the mayor answered "Why not?" even if the yield between the cost and the use of that extension has to be studied first.

Frédéric Béatse detailed that students counted for 50% of the users of VéloCité. Because they are frequent owners of individual cars between downtown and their school, students wanted to know what would the city policy regarding the traffic in the years to come. The town council leader didn't hidden that the car traffic should be limited in the future through the development of charged parking lots.

Another part of the talks was dedicated to the aspect, some participants qualified "bleak", of the city on Sundays. Questioned about the opening of stores on those days and the jobs such a change could create for students, Mr. Beatse answered that a progress had been made regarding the Sundays before Christmas and New Year and feared that a complete liberalisation would kill the retail trade.

"Why should we hire you?", asked
the audience to the candidate. That one indicated that the municipal elections was not a debate about persons but about projects.

Angers economy doesn't foresee recovery signs

Even if the municipal campaign will not be the appropriate level to deal with the economic worries of Angers inhabitants, the fears of those regarding growth and above all employment in the area will surely be present in the platforms and the votes. The latest figures published by La maison de l'emploi confirm a new deterioration of the economic situation in Angers region. The unemployment rate was over 10% at the end of the first three months of 2013 versus 9.3% one year before and 8.9% two years ago.

Few by few, Angers comes close to the national
unemployment average. According to the statistics of the authority, the main origin of the deterioration comes from the economic layoff. Regarding the evolution of the Angers economy, the observers notice a decrease in company creations during the last 12 months. The consumption is at best stable between August 2012 and August 2013 while the volume of credits makes a slight progress.

Analysed through economic sectors, the industrial activity is stable altough with a better trend for the exports. The professionals predicted an improvement after the end of summer holidays. It is also the case in trade where its is forecasted that sales could increase in 2013. In the building sector, a slight increase of turnover is also expected. At the Angers commercial court, the activity faces more companies having difficulties and the president of that jurisdiction "doesn't seen a sign which could stimulate managers to invest and hire people in the months to come".

Frédéric Béatse's letter of candidacy opens with the one of Christophe Béchu a period of "B to B" communication

Crédit pictures : Frédéric Béatse's blog

Through his letter of candidacy, published on October 14th on the Aimer Angers Facebook page, Frédéric Béatse is now fully involved in the electoral campaign after Christophe Béchu and Jean-Luc Rotureau, his challengers to the conquest of the Angers mayor office. Of course different by their contents, the messages sent by Mr. Béatse and Mr. Béchu are different in their style. While the second wrote an essay very analytical [1], the first on two pages appeals more to the feelings of his audience. Entitled "J'aime Angers", Frédéric Béatse's letter is like a declaration of love to the city... and its inhabitants.

But the letter is above all the beginning of a programme. In the economic field, Mr. Béatse, who reminds he led a company dedicated to the internet technologies, promises he will act in two directions : the vegetable and the electronic sectors. According to the candidate, the first is an area of excellence which "needs to be better highligthed". For Frédéric Béatse, the electronic sector deserves to be raised at the same level than the vetegable area and the installation of a Technocampus mixing education, research and production is to way to get that. Regarding the main facilities projects, the candidate is speaking in favour of a "complete East-West tramway line" and the reconquest of the Maine banks, a location propicious not only for inhabitant's leisures but also for economic activities.

The candidate also wants to make the inhabitants' way of life less expensive : "The costs of energy and fuel are increasing the risks of a real instability. That's why the efforts to get a better control of our expenses must go on" what clearly includes those of town hall. Regarding his biography, Frédéric Béatse details he likes contemporary musics which could have their own festival in Angers next year.

[1] "Christophe Béchu opens its aggretaging blog" - Angers Daily News Sept. 30 2013

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.

Birth of a park-like atmosphere in Angers cementaries

Credit picture : Angers city

An environ-mental target, the  restriction of chemicals use in the public domain, is going to change Angers cementaries and to give them an american look. According to its policy "No pesticide", Angers city had started to fill with lawns its burial grounds. During 2013, more than 27 400 m2 have been turfed. But, through that technical decision which will change the atmosphere of Angers cementaries, a reflection has emerged consisting in the evolution of the design of those resting places.

New spaces have been set up in the West cementary which are completely consistent with Us burial grounds : large lawns with, here and there, bushes and trees. But, under that visible change, another one, much more thoughful, is under way. In French cementaries, the deceased rest under different funerary stones. Some are large, other small. Some are costly, others cheap. Some are individualized, other anonymous. Some are black, others grey. And so. Differences continue between men even after their death.

Credit picture : Wikipedia; Brooklyn cenmentary

Us cementaries are inspired by  the English garden movement. At the beginning of the XVIIth century, people started to use landscaping in a park-like setting, that coinciding with the growing popularity of horticulture and the romantic aesthetical taste for pastoral beauty. Angers being, for ages, a region dedicated to plants and vegetables, that interest of the city for natural cementaries is maybe not the fruit of chance.

Frédéric Béatse's nomination for mayor office should open the electoral campaign

Credit Picture : Frédéric Béatse's blog

Just a few hours missed to give to the debate about relationships between journalists and politi-cians, planned by the Syndicat national des journalistes on October 9, the mood of an electoral face to face between Frédéric Béatse, current Angers mayor, and his right-wing challenger, Christophe Béchu, president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire. Both men focused on the topic of the meeting and carefully avoided mutual critics. That should change after Mr. Béatse was officicialy choosen on October 10th by the Angers section of the Socialist Party, as candidate for mayor office.

Credit Picture : Essca

That was not a big surprise given Jean-Luc Rotureau's candidacy to that function was openly criticized by the local socialist supporters. So Frédéric Béatse who remained, until now, in his mayor duties, should now have a wider margin of manoeuvre. He apparently didn't loose time given the Ecole supérieure des sciences commerciales d'Angers invited on October 11th its students for a discussion due to take place on October 15th with the mayor who "wishes to meet [Essca students] in order to know their needs, expectations and vision about a city like Angers".

Credit Picture : Terra Botanica website

On the other side, Christophe Béchu received the support of the Mouve-ment démo-crate (Mo-dem) which has several town coun-cillors but heard some questions from the Angers Loire Métropole delegate to Terra Botanica about the profitabilty of  that amusement and botanical park set up by the Conseil général. If that topic could be used against Mr Béchu, that one will surely answer to his rivals with the absence of industrial recovery of the Angers Technicolor site, one year after its closing.

The tertiary sector is not always a "winning service"

One year ago, an industrial symbol of Angers, Angers Technicolor, disappeared, laying off more than 350 persons, in a spray of promises from ministers passing through the city, Since that day, Angers Loire Métropole bought the site and part of the equipments in a attempt to keep fields, buildings and machinery avaiblable for another activity. But, until now, and in spite of local efforts, the place stayed desperately empty.

On October 9th, one of the most important service companies, the call centre Stream, announced that it had choosen to leave one of the floors it rented to Angers Loire Métropole in the Arobase 2 building generating fears that it could depart from the city and settle in another country. The different call centres give job to around 2 000 Angevins and Stream alone, to around 600.

If such an event were to become true in the months to come, efforts to compensate closings of industrial companies by openings of service societies would be jeopardized and a strategy of employment reconquest would be called into question. The presence of such an issue in the electoral campaign would therefore be accentuated. From many political parts, promises have flourished. But their scent is, until now, a little bit funeral.

Young Angevins : mad in English (movies)

A lot of Angers inhabitants may have noticed that English words were more and more present in their daily life. The pedestrians can see the ads, the slogans and even the names of the stores using English words. Few by few, these elements come in the mind of people and it not surprising that, in Angers, the most famous band, Pony Pony Run Run, whose two members are Angers natives, only performs... in English.

Another trend illustrates the interest of inhabitants to the Shakes-peare’s language : the screening of movies in their original version which is, most of the time, English. And the Les 400 Coups theatre is now the reference for local spectators. "I remember that, in the past, we were only three or four people in the rows when a movie was screened in its original version", says Adrien Picardeau who came to Les 400 Coups when he was a kid and is now, as an IT consultant, in charge of the electronic systems for that theatre.

"Now, the movie theaters are crowded when The King's speech or The Butler or big productions are distributed. There is especially a true enthusiasm from students". According to Mr. Picardeau,  "Youngs want to see the movies as soon as possible. So they watch them in their original version".

Adrien Picardeau is a fierce advocate of movies in their original language and notices that an English series recently broadcasted by the Bbc losts its original taste once translated and (badly) adapted by a French channel for the domestic audience. "Foreign movies translated in French are simply not what they were in their original version.  Would French people watch, in England, a French movie translated in English?", asks Adrien who adds that "Movies in their original dialogs, intonations and accents really educate language ear".

Regarding Angers, «In many towns of the same size, the local audience simply does not have choice between an original and a French version. Angevins are incredibly lucky with the Les 400 Coups".

Two surveys point out the increase of local taxes in Angers between 2007 and 2012.

According to a survey of the Union nationale de la propriété immobilière, the property tax has increased by 25% in Angers between 2007 and 2012 what places that increase among the top ten in France. The product of that tax is used to finance the big development projects what included during that period the new Le Quai theatre, the highway bypass, the urban renovation and of course the first line of the tramway opened in 2011. That trend integrates medium annual increases of about 3.6% each during the same period.

Another survey of the Forum pour la gestion des villes indicates that the council tax with an medium annual increase is above 4% betwen the same years what would lead Angers once agin in the top ten in the ranking of French towns. The money paid on average by an Angers household would be of 1 241 € regarding the property tax and of 881 € for the council tax.

If Angers city is the main beneficiary of the resources coming from the property tax, they also go to the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire which uses them in order to finance social allocations. The two main candidates to Angers mayor office, Frédéric Béatse, current mayor, and Christophe Béchu, president of the Conseil général, who where invited to a debate about the relationship between politicians and press, should not talk about that topic that evening, but could have to think about it during the months to come.

Two candidates to Angers mayor office give the line

Laurent Gérault

The disappearance of the Gaumont has been immediately seized by the challengers of the current town council as a additional evidence of its "passiveness". For Christophe Béchu (conservative), "That closing is especially damaging because the city council was aware about the weakness of that cinema. Its [disappearance] illustrates once again the passiveness of the city council and the failure of its action". Laurent Gérault (centre) sees in that fact "the slow decline of the downtown, without unequivocal reaction of the town council".

Christophe Béchu

According to Mr. Béchu, that situation is also due to "an incoherent circulation plan which asphyxiates Angers centre and prohibitive parking fares". The minority town councillor, Mr. Gérault, urges the town "to involve in the management of activities along Foch boulevard". Both question the town council majority about its period to react.

For that majority, the mayor, Frédéric Béatse, announced that he will soon have a meeting with all the partners of the movie activity and others in order to devise what could take place there : "I think there is room for a cultural offer in that location and I'am ready to think up what could revive it". If Mr. Béatse confirms he was aware of the Gaumont stance "foreseen a long time ago", he precises he unsuccessfully intervened several times towards Gaumont to prevent the closing. "I believe in a varied offer, additional to that of Les 400 Coups", he said.

The successive closures of downtown cinemas : a talking movie

If the closure of the Gaumont Variétés on October 20th is a negative turning point for the attractiveness of the Foch boulevard, the main way of Angers, the problem is the decision of the company is already the consequence of a loss in the number of passings. The figures published by Gaumont are explicits. In the last five years, the crow recorded by the cinemas has decreased by 35%. Moreover, the opening of the Gaumont Multiplexe has downgraded the Variétés.

But the closure will also have consequen-cies for the surrounding pubs and fast food restau-rants who may fear a loss of customers already weakened by the disappearance of another cinema, the Ariel in 1995. The new tramway has not been able to keep to the Foch boulevard the hustle and bustle Angers inhabitants love all year long. But it is not sure that event is the "end of the story". It is not impossible that the Foch boulevard will be the "theatre" of a new mission, less commercial and more residential.

It has been widely said that downtown residents were fed up the nocturnal disturbances. So instead of opposing itself to a normal evolution, which already saw numerous closing of cinemas : the Ariel, the Club, the Pelican and the Palace (the Les 400 Coups will be the only theatre in the centre), Angers city should attempt to accentuate such a trend through new buildings devised for hosting families that it is said the town, and especially downtown, desperately needs.

Political result of the economical situation and divisions inside Angers left lead government to support the mayor

The hypothesis for the Front National, a rightist party, to do a breakthrough at the 2014 municipal elections in Angers has recently been fed by the important score that political movement registered in an local election in the South of France. The economical situation of France may lead, once again, some French to vote more "against" than "for" somebody. That eventuality doesn't please the others candidates, from left, like Frédéric Béatse or Jean-Luc Rotureau, of from centre and right, like Laurent Gérault or Christophe Béchu and didn't escape to members of the government.

Pierre Moscovici, finance minister

During the last legislative polls of 2012, the Front national got in Angers 9% of the votes and his Maine-et-Loire delegate, Gaétan Dirand, hopes to go above the 10% in 2014 and have finally representative(s) at the Angers city council. It is clear that part of the political answer is in the economical evolution of the country from now until next year. The French ministry of finances, Pierre Moscovici, who was in Angers on October 7th, probably knows it what involves him to repeat France will renew with growth next year.

The eventual strenghening of the Front national, but above all the official divisions inside the Angers left, may worry the Socialist party and the government. After the prime minister, Jean-Marc Ayrault, who was in Anfgers a few days ago, it was Mr. Moscovici's turn to support the current mayor, Fédéric Béatse. "Socialists are in love with debate", he said, pointing out that in Angers "Nothing is irreversible and [finally], reason, what means gathering, will prevail".

The Angers band Pony Pony Run Run on France 4

Pony Pony Run Run, the popular power pop band formed in Angers in 2003 will be on France 4 Saturday October 12th between 1.50 am and 2.45 am. The program is dedicated to the second album the band burnt in 2012, this one being titled Pony Pony Run Run. The first was published in 2009 and was sold more than 40 000 copies. That opus contained Hey You which was used as an jingle by Canal+ and viewed more than 700 000 times on Daily Motion.

The musical universe of the band goes from pop melodies to the rock of the 80's including the electo and eurodance. It got an award to the Victoires de la musique in 2010. The originality of Pony Pony run Run is to sing in English. The band says  in musical culture is quite exclusively English-speaking what led the daily The Guardian to dedicate a coverage about it writing " This Gallic ectro trio connfirm what we suspected - that often the French do British synth-pop even better than us".

The band is constitued by two brothers native from Angers, Gaëtan and Amaël Lê Ky-Huong, one singer/guitarist and the other bassist guitarist. The third is Antonin Pierre (Nantes), clavier. The Facebook page of the band announced a new Ep "Unrealesed" is avaiblable on iTunes.

The weekend bread with La Cocagne

Located at the junction of Saint-Laud and Roë streets, the La Cocagne bakery is one of the most frequented of Angers city. Probably because, for years, it is opened on Sundays. In the middle of a less lively downtown on lord's day, the hungry customers look to be magnetized by the lighted front windows of the store. Smells of croissants escape from the double doors as soon as 7 h 00 when merrymakers understand it's time for breakfast before to go to bed. And one of the produces people love is precisely freshly baked bread.

For Patrick Le Drogo, baker, it could be inconceivable not to open on Sundays. "We do the most important sales on Sunday. They are the double of the other days", he says. And the customers look to have a different behaviour : "They are less in a hurry, they have more time. They tell us it's pleasant to be able to buy their bread on Sundays". According to Mr. Le Drogo, men could be more numerous on Sundays than on the others days and moreover "have more inclination to buy bread than women. And on Sunday, we sell more pastries than bread".

Regarding his employees who work by shifts for the end of the week, "they would prefer not to be here on these days but they know that the sales are the double compared to the others days". Nevertheless, Patrick Le Drogo doesn't seem to be a fanatic regarding the opening of stores on Sundays. "Bread and handbag are different items, so different acts of buying", he points out. "The current debate about the opening of stores on Sundays is in the interest of the supermarkets. Sunday allow families to do other things than buying and certainly the opening of all stores the 7th day will be the death of the retail trade".

Students are back in the streets, by night.

The Angers students are once again at the front pages of the news. Most of the time, they gathered until now on the left bank of the Maine : the surroundings of the Ralliement square and Bressigny street. They have now been spottted on the right bank, and particularly in the La Doutre district : Beaurepaire street as well as Carmes and Ligny embankments. If the situation makes angry the residents, it also worries the Angers mayor Frédéric Béatse.

After he signed a few days ago an agreement with the students'
associations involving their members to have fun without going too far, Mr Béatse pointed out that such a charter "would not solve all the problems". The Angers mayor mentions that "some worrying slipping are increasing" and that "some students evenings are sometimes excesses which make difficult the cohabitation between residents and visitors in down town" through " damagings, nocturnal uproar, drunkenness, incivilities"...

The issue could become an election topic for these districts' inhabitants who may ask measures from candidates to get nocturnal peace and safety.

Critics about the support of the former Angers mayor to his successor may foreshadow a new territorial balance

It is not sure the recent statements of Jean-Claude Antonini regarding the future adversaries of Frédéric Béatse, current Angers mayor, have been helpful to the latter on the long-term. If negative reactions from members of the minority group at the city council, former opponents of Mr. Antonini, were likely, critics coming from one of the deputy-president of Alm, a structure Mr. Antonini manages, were rather unexpected.

Credit : Wikipedia

According to Dominique Servant, Saint-Léger-des-Bois mayor and Alm vice-president, Mr. Antonini would have criticized some of the mayors "jealous of their prerogatives". For Mr. Servant, such declarations are unacceptable, himself pledging for more solidarity between cities and villages members of that authority. A few days ago, another vice-president of Alm, Marc Goua, Trélazé mayor and member of parliament, pointed out that Angers, the most important member of Alm, should not get automatically the presidency of that structure.

If Mr. Rotureau, one of the two candidates to the Angers mayor office didn't (yet?) answered to Mr. Antonini's point of view, some friends of Christophe Béchu, member of parliament, president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire and challenger of Mr. Béatse, have reacted the following day. According to Roselyne Bienvenu, Angers town councillor in the minority group, Mr. Antonini should not have intervened and should have stayed at large, a choice made by Jean Monnier, former Angers mayor. Another town coucillor (minority), Gilles Groussard, thinks the president of Alm should focus his attention" on employment and economy".

These opinions may herald a balancing between Angers and surrounding cities in villages in Angers Loire Métropole after the next municipal elections.

A young Angevin researcher hit by the Us budgetary shutdown

As a researcher in sciences in an American laboratory near Boston, a young Angevin is experiencing the consequences of the shutdown of the public administration. Yves works in that place for a year and planned, conscientiously, to go to his office and to continue his experiences. But he had to abandon that idea and stay home.

The Christian Science Center (Wikipedia)

To work in a public building closed consecuently to a disagreement about the federal budget between the American House of representatives (where Republicans are majoritarian) and the Senate (where Democrats are dominant) is strictly forbidden. But the shutdown is complicating his research because the materials he uses may be damaged for a lack of monitoring.

Yves, who is not an American citizen, would be guilty of a serious offense to the Us legislation by working in spite of the prohibition and - in that case - could be immediately expelled towards France. Philosophical, he nevertheless accepted that compulsory unemployment and now plans to stay at home alone because the school of his kids, financed by a federate state and not the federal state, is running.  "This is absolutely crazy", says Yves.

The Angers managers invited to give ideas in order to "Make France win"

The president of the Mouvement des entreprises de France (Medef), Pierre Gattaz, will meet in Angers on October 10th the local managers in order to get their ideas regarding his national project titled "2020 - Make France win". The main objectives of the employer's strategy are "to lower the unemployment rate at less than 7%, to decrease the debt, to get a positive result on foreign trade and to reduce the public sphere to the European level without deteriorating the quality of public utilities".

Pierre Gattaz (Credit : Medef)

The method followed by Mr. Gattaz consists in a partnership with its territorial Medef (in Angers, the Medef Anjou) whose local managers are members. But the Medef says that other contributions coming from associations, citizens and even trade unions will be welcomed. Six aspects should be discussed on October 10th. Some are linked to the companies themselves : the development of their anticipation in order to make easier their permanent adaptability to changes, the increase of partnerships in order to get best competitiveness, the restoration of margins in order to increase their investment capability. Others are rather turned towards their backgrounds : the thriving of staffs, the environment protection and, last but no least, a better understanding between businesses and public sphere along with citizens.

These topics should not let Angers managers indifferent. According to recent statistics of the Angers commercial court, the economic conditions are not at their best. The number of companies having declared difficulties to the jurisdiction has increased as the number of employees having lost their jobs. [In order to attend : Medef Anjou]

Manhattan'store opens in Saint-Aubin street

Credit Picture : Manhattan'store Facebook 

Angevins love food. Angers restaurants are, even if the economic situation is depressing, among the most crowded places, especially on Saturdays. But, the interest of Angers inhabitants is not limited to French food. A lot of restaurants offering foreign cuisine are running in Angers.

And it is obvious that, in the variety of restaurants, the American are some of the most visited. McDonald's, Quick Burger or Subway will now deal with a new competitor : Manhattan' Store which has opened a restaurant in Saint-Aubin street.

The concept was born in New York where hot dogs, prepared in Manhattan'streets on food-trolleys, taste different from those that are eaten in France. So Manhattan'store reproduces identically in France the recipes used in  Usa.  The Facebook page of the company publishes news about the opening of the Angers store while about 400 stores are running in France and different countries. If French customers love food, French businessmen love it too. Manhattan'store with 100% American recipes is 100% French.

Christophe Béchu opens his aggregating blog

Less than a month after the announcement of his candidacy to the Angers mayor office, Christophe Béchu starts to formalise its platform through a new blog www.angersbechu.fr. Under the title, "For a new municipal contract", Mr Béchu analyses the Angers situation and gives his vision about the job of the Angers mayor. In his essay, the senator and president of the Conseil général de Maine-et-Loire holds the current municipal team responsible of a "drop" of Angers face to other Western cities : the town "lost 5 000 inhabitants between the last two census [2004 and 2010]" and recorded "an exponential unemployment : +33,5% in Angers between June 2009 and June 2013".

Credit : www.angersbechu.fr

According to Christophe Béchu, "Angers has real assets but a sizeable handicap : the inertia of the last town councils, breathless and weary". If he praises Jean Monnier (the socialist mayor of Angers from 1977 until 1998), he tackles the current and previous Angers mayors, Frédéric Béatse and Jean-Claude Antonini, for their "petty arrangements [which] override the common interest, even on condition of legality", a clear allusion to the resignation of Mr Antonini in 2012 in favor of his deputy-mayor Mr Béatse, for the mayor office, what also led another former deputy-mayor, Jean-Luc Rotureau, to be himself candidate in 2014 municipal polls.

For Mr Béchu, "the time for action has come" in several directions : entrepreneurship", the "reinstatement of the dialog with store owners and actors of the economic and social circles" instead of "an appearant participative democracy". In his manifesto, Christophe Béchu also unveils some of the main lines of his action once elected. "If a governing principle is necessary : it must be the vegetable. Angers, vegetable capital? I sign with both hands", points out the candidate who wants "to stop the over densification of free areas". In the weeks to come, Angevins should have knowledge about the projects of Christophe Béchu in "employment and economic development", two top priorities of his administration.