Secularism is Ok

Credit Picture : Frédéric Béatse's blog

A tree symbol of secularism has been once again planted in Lorraine square by the Angers mayor Frédéric Béatse after a previous oak set up there for the same purpose had been cut a month ago. That event, simultneous to the racist insults shouted to the justice minister Christian Taubira during her visit to Angers, had been interpreted by local representatives, from both left and right, as a sign of intolerance that has to be tackled.

Because it was impossible to the mayor to warm the hearts of the people gathered in Lorraine square on December 7thbecause of low low temperatures taht morning, he invited them to the nearby town hall where he spoke no as a candidate but as a represen-tative of people not sharing the same religious opinions or even atheists. Having reminded that the city recorded in two weeks "two attacks against republican values [which are] a warning for the representatives", Mr. Béatse pointed out that "secularism allows people to leave peacefully in society, with [their] convictions, as long as they do not impige with the freedom of others" and solemnelly warned that racists and intolerants "were facing a united front".

Frédéric Béatse opens the first of his committee rooms for a campaign "close to districts' expectations"

Consistently with the local urban management he promotes in Angers, Frédéric Béatse, current mayor and candidate for a new term, has started to implement a local electoral campaign by the inauguration of his first committee room in the Belle-Beille district on December 7th. Mr Béatse wants to be as closely as possible to the districts in order to bring in their mind he also wishes to meet inhabitants' wants and needs as closely as possible. That place "is not flashy [but] faithful to our values, close to the districts", he said among supporters who, thereafter, have gone with him to visit some of the inhabitants of Belle-Beille on their doorstep.

Credit picture : Aimer Angers

The mayor-candidate announced that other committee-rooms would be opened in other districts (the next will take place in La Roseraie and a third is planned) as if the strategy was to encircle the core of the town, and Christophe Béchu, his challenger, who set-up there his campaign headquarters a few weeks ago. 

The Belle-Beille district, which has already be redevelopped through a urban renovation policy during the last ten years, is waiting an important change with the arrival of the second tramway line linking its higher education campus to down town. Mr. Béatse is favourable to the construction of an entire new tramway line between Belle-Beille and Monplaisir districts while other candidates said an half-line between Monplaisir and down-town would be more realistic. It is not sure Belle-Beille inhabitants (and students) will agree.

Main banks reconquest : Frédéric Béatse and Christophe Béchu have their respective ways

The future, or no future, of the speedway along the Maine river between the Molière square and the Angers castle appears like one of the most important differences between Frédéric Béatse, current mayor, and Christophe Béchu, his challenger, current president of the Maine-et-Loire general council. Both of them are supporters of a scheme aiming at including the river and its banks in the places Angers inhabitants may go, like in any other one.

Poissonnerie square

The project adopted by the city council plans to maintain an aerial way for car traffic constituted by four lanes (two towards Nantes and two towards Paris) what, according to Mr. Béchu, is absolutely conflicting with the direct access of pedestrians to the Maine banks the two candidates endorse. So Mr. Béchu suggests to set up a plant cover above the speed way "which has been paid and where 20 000 vehicles pass through everyday".

According to Angers city hall, such an option is not technically feasible because the pressure exerted by the Maine river, above all during rises, would be too important for the walls of the speedway buried between Molière and Poissonnière squares. In the project of Mr. Béchu, these would be reunified and would be the place for the junction of the two tramway lines. So the route of the second tramway line is also a major difference between the two candidates in their respective approaches of the Maine bank reconquest.

Laurent Gérault unveils his programme for the Angers retail trade sector in spite of political contingencies

While an alliance inside the centre, between the Angers sec-tions of the Union des démocrates indépendants (Udi) and the Mouve-ment démo-crate (Modem) is far from to be sure, while an agreement of one of these two parties, or both, with the Union pour une majorité populaire candidate, Christophe Béchu, is not yet concluded, Laurent Gérault, the Udi candidate to the next municipal elections, makes public his programme. On December 6th, the issue of his press conference was dedicated to the retail stores. Such a policy would be implemented in four directions : the access to parking lots, the relationship between the city council and the retail store owners, fiscal measures in favour of the latests and new commercial facilities in down town.

Laurent Gérault

 Mr. Gérault plans to dedicate € 3 or 4 millions to a redevelopment of the main Angers squares and a revision of the car park policy with a free first hour and the setting up of parking lots charged minute by minute. The Udi candidate also wants to bring back to public access 300 car parks until now dedicated to representatives or civil servants of Angers town hall or the Conseil général. These facilities had been at the core of a controversy one year ago. Laurent Gérault also wishes a better understanding with Angers store owners. He plans to assign four municipal policemen at their disposal and a toll-free number.

After the stores' managers complained for years about the difficulty to work in down town, the candidate suggests to grant them a reduction of their fiscal pressure, and specifically in favour of the new stores. Finally, two facilities would be set up. The first, a permanent covered food market, would take place in Imbach square where, a long time ago, another one was set up there. The second would be located in the touristic district of La Cité which would host an arts and crafts house. Mr Gérault also introduced one of his future deputy-mayor, Katarzyna Barska-Alibert, lawyer.

The Angers centrists union looks to be a "wearying exercise"

Bernard Dupré

Did the Angers section of the Mouvement démocrate (Modem) choose the good way through an alliance with the candidate of the Union pour une majorité populaire (Ump), Christophe Béchu? And is that choice definitive? It is not sure after the statements of the general secretary of the Modem, Marc Fesneau, about the Angers municipal elections which see one part of the centrists, the Modem, joining Mr. Béchu, while the other part, the Union des démocrates indépendants (Udi), choose behind Laurent Gérault, their Maine-et-Loire delegate, to constitute a list.

Christophe Béchu

"I am looking for a date to come in Angers in order to meet one another. I don't want to give up the idea of a common list" between Udi and Modem, said Mr. Fesneau whose stance looks to be already a disavowal of the decision taken months ago by the Angers Modem town councillors and their leader, Bernard Dupré to join the Ump list. Mr. Fesneau confirmed that the Modem had not yet endorsed the decision of the Angers Modem and explained that in October Mr. Gérault wanted to go with Mr. Béchu, but not without requirements. "But Christophe Béchu slammed the door in Laurent Gérault's face who, by reaction, decided to establish his own list. That's how it happened", reminded Mr. Fesneau.

Laurent Gérault

If a centrist list gathering Udi and Modem were impossible to launch, Marc Fesneau would so propose to Christophe Béchu a negociation. But would that last accept it? In the meantime, the Modem position in Angers has recently been weakened by the choice of local supporters to follow Mr. Gérault's candidacy and not Mr. Béchu. "It is unconsistent not to give a centrist choice to the Angers electorate", wrote two supporters in a press release which points out that "none of the basic principles adopted by the Modem supporters in spring 2013, like the no holding multiple offices, the Maine banks reconquest, the second route of the tramway, the economic issues" are in the programme of the Ump candidate.  For Mr. Fesneau, "such a dispersion wearies us".

Christophe Béchu sentences the Angers jail

Regularly criticized from both left and right Angers representatives because of its poor conditions, the jail located near the botanical garden looks to be sentenced. A few weeks ago, the justice minister, Christiane Taubira, after she received from local decision-makers and lawyers a project about the transfer of the current facility from Angers to Trélazé, answered them that the scheme would be examined... in spite of the severe tensions on the national resources.

Christophe Béchu has just rub in it, with his proposal to convert the jail into a museum dedicated to contemporary art. The idea consists in to tear down the outer wall in order to open the place to the district and to the city. The three wings of the current jail would be redeveloped and dedicated the first to the urban culture, the contemporary music, the second one would host paintings, sculptures and collages while the cells of the third wing would be used as workshops for artists. Mr. Bechu precises that the place would be connected to the second line of the tramway, what predicts an additional change from the route planned by the current majority.

The candidate want to see the jail transferred at Trélazé what would improve the current conditions of detention severely worsened by the over-population of prisoners and the old age of the facility. In a recent press release, the president of Angers Loire Métropole, Jean-Claude Antonini, threatened the Avrillé mayor, Marc Laffineur, former minister, to reveal the reasons why the Angers prison had not been transferred when that one was member of the government.

Angers, just at the pass mark for its involvement against racism

Itinerary of Angers migrants

Economy, qualitity of life, education, among the numerous rankings between cities, the last one which includes Angers is about racism. That survey, realized by the Conseil représentatif des associations noires (Cran), classifies the city at the 18th position out of fifty French towns. "Which cities are in France most involved against racism? Is my city at the cutting edge of progress or, at the opposite, is it the latest one? Does it deserve an AAA or a dunce's cap? What are the good pratices to fight racism? What should be the public policies to implement in cities and estates?" are some of the questions the Cran wants to give answers.

The context should be sensitive for Angers after, a few weeks ago, racist insults were uttered in Angers to Christiane Taubira, justice minister ad the tree of secularism cut down, two events followed by a public demonstration in Angers streets with several candidates to municipal elections. That led the mayor to write her a letter of apology after the case got a national impact, eluding what the city had already implemented towards "diversity promotion, fight against discriminations and for equality" through the Council for the citizenship of foreign Angevins and an exhibilition two years ago about migrants arrived in Angers.

The council of foreign Angevins Credit pictures Angers city

The cities have been ranked on the basis of a question-naire about their internal policies (human resources and training) and their public policies (economy, cuture, education, safety, etc). But the answers of the cities are not the only component of the ranking. Results of surveys led by the Cran are also taken in account (the balancing between these two categories of datas is not detailed). Angers sums up 52 points out of 100 and its note is C. The worst total is 10 (Marseille) and the best 79 (Villeurbanne) while the average is 42. Eighteen towns got the pass mark and Angers is the last.

A few measures are proposed by the Cran : a visible and tangible involvment of the mayors, the appointment of a deputy mayor in charge of discriminations and a better relationship with the associations. In Angers, the mayor will soon plant a new tree as symbol of secularism.

The Angers Cartoons festival on the next weekend at the congress centre

The 15th edition of the Angers Cartoons festival, due to take place on December 7th and 8th in the congress centre will introduce new local authors and should confirm its audience. While 3 000 visitors were recorded last year, that figure should increase because more authors will be present in 2013. According to Nicole Whittington-Thuleau, "half of the attendance comes from the outside of Maine-et-Loire". The event, which is the first of its catagory inside the Pays de la Loire region, has each year a topic.

After "tops of the bill, Etienne Davodeau (Le chien qui louche), Pascal Rabaté or Marc-Antoine Mathieu, there are a lot of talents in Anjou and several will be there this year", adds Mrs. Whittington-Thuleau who lists Erik Juszezak (Dantès, Narvalo, Empire Usa), Luki Bancher (En classe with me), Jean-Gaël Deschard (Bunny) or Benoït du Peloux (Triple Galop, Zoé and Pataclop). About fifty authors will display their works. Exhibitions in the congress center are planned and others decentralized in the Angers castle about La bête de l'Apocalypse, of Lucien Rollin, the Beaucouzé multimedia library about an off-the-wall western and the Higher Schoolof Agriculture with the Lincoln series. Some of these will last until mid December or mid-January

The festival is an idea of the Angers Bd association whose aim is "to promote the cartoons in Maine-et-Loire through a festival which would include Angevine culture". The 2013 festival poster has been drawn by Bernard Vrancken.

Municipal campaign: Laurent Gérault and Jean-Luc Rotureau deploy their means

The candidates to the Angers municipal elections are intensifying their communication. After the main contenders to mayor office, Frédéric Béatse who opened a blog and his supporters a Facebook page, after Christophe Béchu who launched his website and opened a committee room in down town Angers, the outsiders, Laurent Gérault and Jean-Luc Rotureau started to deploy new means.

Laurent Gérault, who recently go the support of some Mou-vement démocrate (Modem) members and of Hervé de Charette, former minister, has just put online a new website "Servir Angers". The list, which had only recently a Facebook page, sets a "positive alternative" and puts forward an "involvement borne by a code of conduct". That one points out that "policy is not a job", so the list makes clear that its members will have responsabilities limited in time and in the number of mandates. Mr. Gerault demands to his running mates to live and pay their taxes in Angers. Changes in the way the city council works are also detailed as well as the vote of inhabitants for projects above € 10 millions. The candidate's programme aims at fighting against "the loss of status of Angers".

Jean-Luc Rotureau has on his side introduced a new mode of campai-gning through a van used as a mobile committee room in order to meet the Ange-vins. The van, decorated with the portait and the name of the candidate, starts his rounds on December 5th and Mr. Rotureau invites inhabitants and store owners to talk with him, what is a way to distance himself  "from candidates who open offices in down town". The districts Jean-Luc Rotureau will visit are listed on his website. Mr. Rotureau indicates he will announce few by few the members of his list between December and January.

An Angers lawyer's complaint followed by Bob Dylan's indictment

Ivan Jurasinovic

The complaint an Angevin lawyer, Ivan Jurasinovic, had registered against the american singer Bob Dylan, has been followed by the indictment of that one by a Paris examining magistrate last november for "insults" and "incitation to racial hatred". The procedure was implemented by Mr Jurasinovic on behalf the Representative Council of Croatian Institutions and Community of France (Rccicf) after Bob Dylan said to the French edition of the Rolling Stone magazine : "If you have Ku Klux Klan in your blood, Blak people may feel it, even today. As the Jews feel nazi blood and Serbs Croatian blood".

In a press release, the Rccicf pointed out that "those words of uncommon violence have deeply shocked Croatian people, in Croatia, in France and all over the world, particularly as a little pacific nation not long ago wounded by the independance war [against Serbia after Yugoslavia collpased]". The indictment of Mr. Dylan, 72 years old, was simultaneous to his reception in the French Légion d'honneur order by France minister of culture, Aurélie Filipetti.

Bob Dylan

The Croatian community expressed that "it was not looking for damages and wishes before everything that Bob Dylan,  for who Croatia has love and respect, apologizes". Mr. Jurasinovic had already got president Stipe Mesic and former Serbian leader Radovan Karadzic' sentences. Croatia is member of the European Union since July 2013 and plans to take the euro as its national currency in 2015.

The opening of a café predicted on Foch boulevard may predict signs of its recovery

During his recent chat with Angers inhabitants on December 2nd, the mayor, Frédéric Béatse, has announced the opening, on Foch Boulevard, of an establishment member of a national chain of cafes. That arrival, after the opening of an hotel at the n°21 of the same way, indicates that few by few, one of the main avenues of Angers is recovering its attractiveness for investors. It is not the only one. Along the Roë street and until the Molière square, new stores or restaurants have just appeared or may do so in the weeks to come. And a few month ago, the Maine-et-Loire general council unveiled the project of a new building with a commercial gallery along the boulevard.

The Foch boulevard was itself severely hit by the successive disappearances of three cinemas, the last one having closed its doors on October 20th what led to debates about the means to revive that way among the candidates to the municipal elections. It is possible that one of the main leverages of that start of recovery be the tramway, now well included by inhabitants for their urban travels. Such an outcome may lead the candidates to confirm their interest to a second line.

Or course, the recovery of Angers trade center is far to be completed and the recent French debate about an enlarge-ment of possibilities for commer-cial openings on Sundays will for sure interfere with the current reflections regarding Angers down town. The construction of a new cinemas complex in Les Ponts-de-Cé, a city close to the south of Angers, which will be of course opened on Sundays(while it was said that L'Atoll, the commercial park located  at the North of the city, was favourable to include a cinema) will make necessary to find new ways to stimulate the recovery which is perhaps starting for Angers down town stores.

The first decrease ot unemployment recorded in Angers and surroundings for months

For the first time for months, and maybe for more than a year, the unemploy-ment rate recorded a decrease of 3% at the end of October in Angers and surroundings while, in Maine-et-Loire, the trend had a more marked orientation with -3.8%. This is the best evolution of all the Pays de la Loire region where the average trend is rather -1.6%. At the national level, the same evolution is noticed : the number of persons having no job at all lowered by 20 500 in October.

If the news is good for Angers and the Maine-et-Loire, its simultaneity with the national figures may indicate that there is no specific reason of such an improvement at the local level. Nevertheless, the arrival of that slight decrease is favourable to the end of year perspectives in consumption, which is itself an indication of the confidence of people for the months to come. As a symbol, several front windows of Angers down town have recently been
purchased and will soon offer new services to the Angers customers. On another side, local companies won a prize for their dynamism. In the construction field, cranes are still present in the urban landscape.This is not sufficient but it nevertheless may indicate the beginning of an economic recovery of the territory. Of course the recent announcement regarding the Ardoisières d'Angers closing wil not interfere favourably with statistics and the Angers region is far from to be released from the unemployment.


Statistics at local level do not disclose which categories of jobless people benefit from the trend. Until today, young people were the most severly hit by unemployement. The quality of education regularly awarded to Angers should trigger such an evolution. But that one is not yet confirmed. [Credit pictures : Angers city, Wikipedia]

The openness about openings on two Sundays before Christmas now implemented

Their success looks pale under the illuminations of Angers down town streets for the weeks to come. The little poster appears here and there on the entrances of stores.  The sentence "I am opened the Sundays before Christmas" is just above two dates : December 15th, December 22th both of them marked with a cross. If, apparently, the poster is not visible on all the front windows, it is sure that the experience some of them will attempt until the end of the year will be studied and, if successful, be enlarged.


After the territorial authorities passed a regulation which prevented store owners to open their shops the last Sundays of the year, the Groupement d'entente du commerce led a petition in order to get that possibility, pointing out the difficulties caused by the works of the tramway and the increase of car parks fares (for their customers and their employees) with, in the background, the competition of the commercial centres.

A clear openness was visible from the Angers town council with the arrival of the new mayor, Frédéric Béatse, himself having said that, about that topic, he would not be "dogmatic". So a move has been done and the store owners considered it as "historical". The operation "Suns of winter", which was inaugurated that weekend, attacted a lot of people. The increase of the attendance led to an increase of the number of wooden huts what proves that for many Angers housholds to go for shopping on Sundays is also a family pastime.

A week of English language movies at the Les 400 Coups from December 4th

The Les 400 Coups cinema in partnership with the English Language Library in Angers schedules a week of English language movies from December 4th to 10th. Ten movies, most of them American, and three evenings are on the programme. These last events consist in screenings of movies all of them introduced by a critic.

The last one will be dedicated to the famous "Of mice and men", English Language Library in Angers which has just celebrated in 2013 its 20th anniversary. The other movies (Mud, Moonrise Kingdom, Atonement, Matilda, Hunger Games, Princess Bride and An Education) are screened at 1.45 and 6.00 pm while the evenings start at 6.00 or 8.15 pm.
rolled in 1992, from the masterwork written by John Steinbeck, and played by John Malkovitch, Gary Sinise and Alexis Arquette. The movie and the book will be analysed by a cinema critic and the manager of the

That theater is the last in down town Angers since the closing, a few weeks ago of Les Variétés on Foch boulevard. The Les 400 Coups displays movies in original version having a social and aesthétic interest. That's why the Angers public may see there movies which are not largely distributed. Regularly, the theatre offers an European programming. Others weeks of movies in German, Spanish and Italian are already planned on 2014.

Two Angers companies rewarded at national level

Two little Angers companies have recently been awarded at national level by economic observers for their successes. Novea Energie and Mca Finance, both of them located in Angers, are in completely different sectors but have in common their involment in very specific fields. 

Credit Picture : Mca Finance

Mca Finance, founded in 1987 by Patrick Creuzé, still in charge, is a portfolio management company. The Agefi, an electronic daily news website gave it its grand prix in assets mana-gement through the Mca's funds Mca Gestoblig. That fund has got the best performances on the 3 last years and been ranked with the highest grade by Europerformance, a rating agency. On one year, the funds recorded 4,49% in profitability. Mca Finance's offices are in Paul Bert street.

Credit Picture : Novea Energies

Novea Energies, founded in 2007, manu-factures - in Angers - self-sufficient ligh-ting systems. It has been , awarded by Deloitte In Extenso, an accountancy and management services company, for its growth during the last five years : 401%. The Novea's customers are local authorities and companies looking for lighting devices fit-ted to off-grid areas which wish to focus on renewable solutions and energy savings.

These two rewards should stimulate the will of candidates to An-gers municipal elections to give to local companies the most favou-rable environment for their growth and jobs creation. After all, every major company has been small one day.

The Eire lands in Angers

Will the Roë street find again its hustle and bustle it had lost the last years? May be. And thanks to the opening, on November 30th, of a "Comptoir Irlandais". That establishment is part of a national chain born 26 years ago in Brest, the most Western town of France, located in a region, Brittany, close to Irland through its traditions and climate. The Comptoir Irlandais includes 42 stores and the Angers one is the latest.

Each of them offers an invitation to travel, through food and beverages as well as clothes, in Ireland. The most well-stocked section of the stores displays beverages : beers (the famous O'Hara's and the mythic Guiness) and whiskies. These are the core of Le Comptoir Irlandais : Irish single mats like The Conemara, pure pot still whiskeys, like Jameson or blended Irish whiskeys like Bushmills, all of them brands loved by Angers connoisseurs. But many others products kids and adults know are also there : biscuits, teas (with scones hmm!), marmalades or typical sauces. A lot of others items are available in the stores : wool pullovers, cardigans, plaids and of course rugby kits!


The Comptoir Irlandais has not yet completed its interior installation and the store fronts are not yet set up. Located at the cross-roads of Roë and Saint-Laud streets, that new shop, which already attracted the Angers consumers on its inaugural day, is close of an Irish tea room  in  L'Espine street, "My Favourite Place". Shamrock grow in downton. That's why that part of the city is turning green.

Art-club at the museum

On November 28th from 7.00 pm, the main hall of the Angers museum of fine arts had an atmos-phere of night club, with hostes-ses, drinks, music, blue and red psychelelic lights on the ceilings of that place which usually impress because of their height and force silence people who come there to pay tribute to the heroes of arts. But one of the Angers temple of arts reversed the deal, making the visitors the heroes of the evening. "Yes, we can be heroes" answered the students who were invited by the museum to fit it to their wishes. So the place was entirely revisited by them.

The event year after year gains in success. "Last year we recorded 1 000 students", remembers Amélie Fabien, assignment manager at Angers museums who hopes "the 2013 attendance will go over that threshold". The topic of the heroes was choosen because it's in the air and because it allows interpretations from students who were invited to submit projects of animation. "Twenty were introduced and 15 have been implemented", says Mrs. Fabien. The event is not only nice for students, it is also useful for the museum : "It allows us to see new approaches and to test ideas we couldn't try on the Heritage Day", points out Amélie Fabien who reminds that "students may easily discover Angers museums because their entrance is free all year long for people under 26".

Radio Campus and even a disc-jockey were there to give to the event the lively atmosphere students apparently love.

Alain Ducasse opens a new hotel in Foch boulevard on December.

The chain Chateaux et Hotels Collection has announced on its website the opening of a new establishment in Angers from the next month. Located on 21 Foch boulevard in a former mansion built in the XIXth century which had sheltered an Angers management holdings company, the hotel includes 14 rooms which have been arranged by a local set-designer and are available for booking since last October. The place is opened 24 hours a day and is fitted with lift, cable television, strong-box, room service, wifi, internet terminal and high-flow in rooms.

For a long time abandoned, the mansion came back to life with the arrival of a restaurant VF (Version Française) managed by Pascal Favre d'Anne more than two years ago which largely revisited the way food is fastly cooked and eaten. The chef, a Marc Veyrat's pupil, will also be entrusted with the lunches the "21, Foch" will daily serve. The hotel is clearly directed at customers looking for "diversity and authenticity".

Credit : Chateaux et Hôtels Collection

The brand Chateaux et Hotels Collection was founded in 1975 and wants to be a referent of "charming hotels and gourmet restaurants". The chain, managed by Alain Ducasse since 1999, "brings together 700 establishments in 16 countries, the majority based in France and Italy". The choice of the location has nothing to do with chance : "Chateaux et Hotel Collection 'hunts out' rare pearls, eclectic locations inhabited and steeped in history where cuisine and the 'crafters of enjoyment' who bring the place to life play an essential role".

The arrival will surely give confidence to store owners, customers and local representatives who were disappointed after the closure of the Gaumont Variétés a few weeks ago. The"21, Foch" will also help to liven up the boulevard. And, of course, in the establishment, English will be spoken.

The electoral campaign between main candidates livens up through their supporters

The debate between two of the candidates to the 2014 Angers municipal elections still livens up. One of the closest supporters of Christophe Béchu, the Avrillé mayor, Marc Laffineur, criticized yesterday Angers Loire Métropole, the authority gathering more than 30 towns and villages around Angers and presided by Jean-Claude Antonini, about its partisan nature. A few days ago, Anthony Taillefait, one of the supporters of Christophe Béatse, current mayor, had  blamed Christophe Béchu, president of  the Maine-et-Loire general council for his financial management of the structure.

The Biopole, a facility for the up-grading of households' wastes, focuses the critics of Mr. Laffineur. According to that one, the structure which cost € 65 millions, doesn't run appropriately. "One made us believe that it was the best technic for the processing of wastes. All the experiences in France ended in a failure", comments Mr. Laffineur who suspect the former Angers mayor to have set up that facility "in order to get the support of ecologists [today Frédéric Béatse's allies]. This is obviously a partisan behaviour". That led Jean-Claude Antonini to remind that Marc Laffineur, vice-president of Angers Loire Métropole, "has voted in favour of all the decisions of Alm regarding the Biopole facility" adding that Alm is "a target which allows the Avrillé mayor to exist at low costs".

Until now, the candidates to Angers mayor office avoided oppor-tunities for a direct quarrel even if, from times to times, critics agains their adversary appear. But these are more orientated towards the past than the future.

Angevins make a strong case for care

The philosopher and budhist monk Matthieu Ricard, who has just published a book about the altruism was in Angers on November 27th for a session of dedications organized by the Richer bookshop but also for a conference which took place the same day at the Université catholique de l'Ouest. If the audience predicts the fate of the book, that one should be a hit because the largest lecture hall of the "Catho" was full as well as its entrances. The crowd had to sit in the hall of the building and its stairs where a giant screen was set up. Auditors, youngs and adults, were apparently eager to listen to the analysis of Matthieu Ricard "Plea for the altruism" while, according to the questions of the audience, nothing indicates that the world is going to a better understanding.

It is nevertheless what said the budhist monk, taking examples of a larger place for altruism nowadays than formerly. According to the author, there are at least three dimensions of our collective existence where altruism and goodwill are more visible. The violence, inside households or between states, is in regular recoil : the number of homicides decreases as well as the number of victims of wars. And, even if the medias grant a larger interest to bad news than good news, the recent climatic catastrophies in Japan or Philipines were the theatre of numerous acts of generosity which were not reported. The progress of democracy, gender equality and education give, according to the philsopher, hope for a pacific and altruist society.

The new technologies are one of the fields where altruism appears. The social networks, even if they are "a window for narcisism", help to go over state authorities especially when those are dictatorships. The economic crisis itself made appear some initiatives rather reassuring. For Mr Ricard, "the maximisation of personal interests" is not the only law which rules economy : ethical funds, crow-fundings and fair trade are the most visible aspects of a "positive economy" motivated by something else than personal interest. The author also pointed out that linguistic globalisation had not only bad virtues given that in France the "care economy", so qualified in French and by French, is trendy.

That interest for altruism and its possible consequences may predict that the message delivered by some of the candidates about "another way of doing politics" may meet a favourable echo in Angers.