Headwinds are blowing on the Côte d’Azur. The rallying to Emmanuel Macron of Christian Estrosi is hardly more in doubt. The mayor of Nice granted his sponsorship to the outgoing president and left Les Républicains (LR) in May. From now on, it is another protagonist of the Nice right who breaks definitively with the party. Except that this last one goes the other way. Former first deputy Benoît Kandel announced earlier this week that he was joining Eric Zemmour.
In reality, this is not really a surprise. This former right-hand man of Christian Estrosi from 2008 to 2013 had left the UMP to join the National Center of Independents and Peasants (CNIP), a party classified more to the right. With this label, he had presented himself in the Nice municipal elections of 2020, obtaining however only 7.31% of the votes. The following year, he was to lead a list for the regional elections in Paca, this time that of Debout la France, the formation of Nicolas Dupont-Aignan, before throwing in the towel in the home stretch.
“Christian Estrosi has boboyized”
This gendarmerie colonel will therefore be associated with a fourth party in less than ten years, that of Eric Zemmour. However, he considers in an interview with Nice morning to be “remained true to its values. When I entered politics with Christian Estrosi in 2008, he carried authentic right-wing values and that suited me very well. If someone has drifted ideologically, it’s not me, it’s Christian Estrosi who macronized, boboized by going to the center left ”, he tackles.
Benoît Kandel also takes advantage of this interview to send a message to another local political figure: the unfortunate candidate for the right-wing primary, the already very right-handed Eric Ciotti. “Your real place is at Reconquest [le mouvement de Zemmour, ndlr], join us ! he throws at her. I understand that he is faithful to his party, but at some point he will have to remain faithful to his ideas. continues Kandel. The political line of the “advisor on authority” of Valérie Pécresse’s campaign team is indeed extremely close to that of Eric Zemmour. According to the chained Duck, Ciotti would have even intimated to several elected LR that“we had to prepare to support Zemmour in the second round” at the end of the failed Parisian meeting of its candidate.
Object of many desires
Whether Eric Ciotti joins the polemicist or not, there is no doubt that he will do everything to keep his seat as deputy for the 1st constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes, which represents the center of Nice. However, this seat is the subject of many desires. To try to overthrow his enemy brother of the Côte d’Azur, Christian Estrosi seeks the best of candidates. Several names are mentioned, but especially that of Olivier Bettati.
The man has a political career as complex as it is incongruous. Like Benoît Kandel, he was deputy mayor of Nice from 2008 to 2013, before falling out with Christian Estrosi. He then presented a list against him in the municipal elections of 2014, supported in particular by the Modem, with which he entered the opposition in the municipal council. But the following year, Olivier Bettati approached the far right and co-led a list with Marion Maréchal-Le Pen during the departmental. Then, in 2020, he ran for municipal elections with the support of the National Rally, but this time in the city of Menton, where he failed in the second round with 44.30% of the vote.
Finally, in November, the former deputy made up with the still mayor, who entrusted him with a mission concerning the requalification of a basin in the port of Nice. And therefore think of him to beat Eric Ciotti on his territory in the legislative elections. The political life of Nice, even more breathtaking than an episode of Black baron.