Jean Lassalle said on Tuesday that he was considering withdrawing from the race for the Elysée, castigating an election “which no longer makes any sense” with little debate, to which he is not invited.
Jean Lassalle said Tuesday to consider withdrawing from the race for the Elysée, castigating an election “which no longer makes any sense” with little debate, to which he is not invited, during a hearing on decentralization . “Yes, I am strongly considering it at the moment,” explained the deputy for Pyrénées-Atlantiques the day after a first televised evening where 8 of the 12 presidential candidates confronted their ideas and to which he had not been invited, just like Philippe Poutou, Nathalie Arthaud and Nicolas Dupont-Aignan.
“Today when you are no longer invited, well you can no longer pretend,” he added, implying that he would also not be invited to “two other unfortunate debates” scheduled in the next weeks. Throwing in the towel, “this morning, that’s the question I’m asking myself. I will have answered this evening”, he assured, stressing however “not knowing for the moment what will do (it) change one’s mind”.
“I therefore hope that Jean Lassalle will remain in this presidential race”, says Marine Le Pen
In his speech, Jean Lassalle attacked the “Bouygues family”, owner of TF1, a channel which organized the first debate on Monday, and which, according to him, had made a “contract” with François Mitterrand and Jacques Chirac to let everyone speak. “All of this has been shattered,” he lamented. He previously attacked the “two major representatives of finance” who are in his eyes outgoing President Emmanuel Macron whom he presented as “the representative of Bernard Arnault (LVMH), Patrick Drahi (Altice), and a few others” and, on the other hand, “the immense (Eric) Zemmour carried by (Vincent) Bolloré” who “bought 45 publishing houses in France of all sensibilities”.
Reacting to the statements of Jean Lassalle who preceded her during the hearing, the candidate RN Marine Le Pen judged “absolutely inadmissible (…) that after obtaining these sponsorships, there are candidates who continue to not be treated like the others, without anyone really understanding what criteria can be chosen”. “I therefore hope that Jean Lassalle will remain in this presidential race and that the various media which organize debates will change their behavior towards him as well as towards other candidates who have also been rejected”, a- she added.
The NPA candidate Philippe Poutou, also joked about his absence: “we see that it is not Bouygues who runs the AMF”, he said, thanking the Association of Mayors of France for the invitation ( AMF), which organized the hearing with Regions of France and the Assembly of French departments (ADF)).
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