The investiture of the former Prime Minister to represent the French abroad makes his opponents and the majority cringe.
Four years after leaving French political life for an adventure in Barcelona which turned into a fiasco, the former Prime Minister Manuel Valls wants to return, but his nomination to represent the French abroad makes his opponents cringe and in the majority.
“My only candidacy has put the spotlight on the French abroad”, explains in an interview with AFP in Madrid Manuel Valls, invested by the presidential majority in the small fifth constituency of the French abroad, which brings together the Spain, Portugal, Monaco and Andorra. That is about 120,000 registered voters. For this former heavyweight of the socialist party, who had left the National Assembly in quick succession in 2018 to try in vain to conquer the town hall of Barcelona, his hometown, then in 2021 his position as municipal councilor of the Catalan metropolis, he had to go through the ballot box to come back.
Representing yourself in Essonne “did not make sense”
“Everyone knows that I live between Barcelona, Menorca and Paris”, launches Manuel Valls, 59, former head of government of François Hollande (2014-2016), who claims his “anchorage” and his “double culture” Franco -Spanish. To represent himself in Essonne, where he had been elected four times, but on the wire during his last campaign in 2017, “did not make sense”, he said. “I had passed the hand. No more than it made sense in another constituency in France,” he explains.
No doubt there would have been a privileged target of the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), the left-wing alliance forged by Jean-Luc Mélenchon around La France insoumise (LFI).
“I want the French to benefit from my experience and my influence, (…) from my strong voice”, insists Manuel Valls. His favorite themes, “security, secularism, living together, gender equality”, have not changed.
The outgoing LREM deputy maintains his candidacy
The announcement on May 5 of his nomination for the June legislative elections had the effect of a bombshell in this fifth constituency, especially among French people residing in Spain. Stéphane Vojetta, the outgoing deputy, who wore the colors of La République en Marche (LREM), has decided to maintain himself and presents himself as the “natural candidate (refusing) parachuting and the upheavals of the old world”, while remaining “a loyal support” of Emmanuel Macron.
“Manuel Valls is a person I respect (…) but unfortunately, I was able to see quite sadly the deterioration of his image” and “his lack of popularity”, this former banker told AFP. 47-year-old business. The former Prime Minister does not seem worried by this “dissident” candidacy, while the French in Spain voted 83.6% for Emmanuel Macron on April 24, even if he recognizes that “nothing is won in advance”. And to point the finger at a single opponent: “melenchonism”.
For Renaud Le Berre, the candidate of the unified left, the eruption of Manuel Valls “annoyed the fellow citizens”, but “it makes the constituency more media and it can strengthen participation”.
In case of failure, there will be “neither sourness, nor bitterness, nor resentment”
Within the majority, Manuel Valls enjoys many supports, like Stanislas Guérini, the boss of LREM: “His voice carries. Not everyone has been Prime Minister. advantage for the majority”. Guillaume Gouffier-Cha, LREM deputy for Val-de-Marne, agrees, believing that the voice of Manuel Valls “still counts, especially in these moments of international crisis”. At the mention of his name, a third LREM deputy, representative of the left wing of the party, raises his eyes to the sky: “He is going to lose”, he blurts out on condition of anonymity, visibly unenthusiastic. to the idea of sitting alongside the ex-socialist.
The candidacy of Manuel Valls for the French National Assembly has not, for the time being, aroused enormous interest in the Spanish press, but the few comments are hardly favorable to him. “Everything shows that Valls will not be able to beat (outgoing deputy Stéphane Vojetta) and that it will be the end of an opportunist who did not have the wisdom, the courage and the dignity to retire in time”, affirmed Friday the conservative daily ABC in a scathing op-ed headlined: “Last Opportunist’s Opportunity”. The interested party promises that in the event of failure, he will be “neither in sourness, nor in bitterness, nor in resentment”.