Like every year for 17 years, the Butte de Saint-Cassien, in Cannes, welcomed the political start of the mayor Les Républicains- “new energy” of Cannes, David Lisnard. On the platform mounted in the middle of the tables around which 2,500 guests were crowded, David Lisnard did the show. For more than 90 minutes, inexhaustible when night fell, he recalled the raison d’être of “new energy”, the party he founded in 2013: “Give freedom in the face of technocratic nonsense, in the face of democratic numbness, in the face of bureaucratic sclerosis” et “Raise France”.
“I don’t trust François Bayrou to straighten the country”
Returning to the current political situation, he mocked Prime Minister François Bayrou’s decision to ask the deprivation of deputies on September 8: “We had a Prime Minister who says: “In a few months the budget may not pass. Rather than being killed, I commit suicide right away.” »
“There will be a majority against”he predicted. “But I learn, reading a press release, since I was not consulted, that from the outset, LR deputies must vote confidence.” An instruction that David Lisnard will not apply, dissociating himself from the President of the Republicans, Bruno Retailleau.
“François Bayrou is a Prime Minister who plays the Fathers-La-Rigue, but it is the same Prime Minister who voted all the budgets of François Hollande and Emmanuel Macron. All! It is out of the question to let us absorb by the calamitous assessment of recent years. I say it clearly, I do not trust François Bayrou to straighten the country.”
The one who wishes to demonstrate “That an alternative is possible”has a fully found solution to unlock the situation: “A new electoral cycle, with a new President of the Republic, then the legislative elections afterwards. Because imagine that there are anticipated legislative elections now, you again block the whole country for a year. The result will be the same.”
“One of the possibilities would be for the President of the Republic to say:” I note the blocking situation in which the country is. I am partly responsible for these blockages. I do not resign immediately, but in 4-5 months. And then there will be a new president who will be able to dissolve. “ It would not be a dismissal, because we are not anarchists, it would be a resignation. But for that, you have to be a statesman. ”
“There will be a” new energy “candidate for the next municipal elections”
Leaving the national context aside, the mayor of Cannes recalled the next deadlines: the municipal elections of March 15 and 22, 2026.
“There will be a” new energy “candidate”he promised, before clarifying immediately: “We are not in the time of applications. We still have a little more than five months of mandate project to be executed.” Disappointment among the guests who hoped for a declaration of candidacy this evening.
This was followed by a long list of the successes obtained during the last mandate: the Palais des Festivals, which has become the first French congress center in number of occupation and turnover; a concrete ecological policy; The fight against insecurity: the 16,000 free parking spaces; urban projects; And the 3.6% drop in tax rates in the town, in particular.
While assistance thought that the speech was coming to an end, David Lisnard returned to the “new energy” project: the end of the welfare state, retirement by capitalization, the end of the bureaucracy excessively …
“This fight, we wear it and we want to win it. And to win this project in the current state of the political proposal, there is no other possibility than to organize a large competition on the right, open, the widest possible”, recalled the one who militates for an open primary from the right to avoid divisions – competition in which he always wishes to participate. Attal, Philippe, Knafo, Dupont-Aignan, Darmanin …: “Let them come, and we can compare the projects. “
Asked about his real chances of winning, the president of the Association of Mayors of France, replied: “I am very lucid on my political condition. I am not known. But with a little insolence, I admit it, I try to carry this vision, that is to say to release the forces of production, of creativity. I have the impression that with this project, to” new energy “, we are gaining the battle of ideas. And when we win the battle of ideas, we can win electoral.”“For 2027, it will be too short”
The 2,500 guests were won over. “He is right not to vote for confidence in François Bayrou”estimates Francine, 70, a member of “new energy” for 10 years.
Nicole, 85, thinks that “It’s a bit risky, because it will dive France again in chaos. But it may be a necessary evil”.
On its chances of success in the primary of the right, if it takes place. “It can get there, but not for 2027. It’s too early. It is not well known, indicates the octogenarian. But it can help make known “new energy”. It may be a good strategy. »»
Mireille, she already sees it there: “We need a strong man at the head of the state. We are behind him at 200%, but in 2027, it will be too short.”
