While the candidates from the major French political parties for the upcoming 2007 Presidential elections are not yet known, at least one candidate is already clear – a surprise from Nice, Alain Mourguy, who presents his alternative to the current political currents with a new party: the Union for Direct Democracy.
Nice Première wanted to know more about this candidacy, which has been rather hastily associated with the famous Catherine de Médicis and her “I am coming,” and which will be the first candidacy from Nice in a presidential election.
If you want to learn more about this candidacy: www.elysee2007.org
Nice Première: A person from Nice in the 2007 presidential elections, is this really happening?
Alain Mourguy: YES, my website has been online for over 2 years (www.elysee2007.org but also www.democratiedirecte.net or www.mourguy.com) and I have been contacting the 33,000 Mayors of France from towns and villages of less than 3,000 inhabitants, from whom I will obtain the 500 signatures.
NP: What are the foundations of your program?
AM: The bases of my program are primarily to restore power to the citizens without resorting to revolution or constant contestation.
Example: A referendum of popular initiative only on important subjects that commit our country for several decades: under these conditions, only the citizen should decide. In no case can a government elected for 5 years decide the future of France for 20 or 30 years, I want to point out that if the vote for the European constitution had gone through the national assembly, 90 percent of the deputies would vote YES to Europe, so there is indeed a discrepancy between the citizens and our deputies who are no longer at all aware of public opinion!
NP: What reforms would you make to the current system?
AM: “Reforms” is not the word I would use. Indeed, political trust needs to be restored to our compatriots, for which, as a priority, the RECOGNITION of the WHITE vote in all elections.
Then, a referendum on whether or not to create a 6th Republic; trust cannot be rebuilt with the past, hence new ideas, new women and men if the citizens decide. How, for example, can we give a mandate, of any kind, to a political personality who has been convicted of using PUBLIC money for personal purposes?
This is unacceptable in a democracy: for information, a “taxi driver” who has a criminal sentence will NEVER get his “taxi license” back… it’s unbelievable… while the “politician” will again have the right to manage public funds.
An important point: each year, the Court of Auditors does a REMARKABLE job, paid for by the taxpayer, and denounces billions in wasteful spending by the State, bad management intentional or not etc…That’s beautiful, that’s good, it’s great except…that IT SERVES NO PURPOSE, since this COURT has no judicial power, so immediately I would give this court the power to prosecute all those responsible for these wastages…
NP: Alain Mourguy, there’s also a team, I suppose?
AM: The team is currently structuring a national network of citizens, a partnership will probably be formalized in early 2006 with a movement neither right nor left nor extreme, already well present in France with citizen ideas.
NP: What – or who – decided you to embark on this adventure?
AM: This adventure started on the evening of the first round of 2002, it was not a question for me to cry scandal and demonstrate in the streets, on the contrary, I asked myself how we had gotten there? Thus, I looked for solutions which are on my website… Mr. Le Pen had not, to my knowledge, executed a coup d’état, so I think that the 17 percent of citizens were not respected; for information, I am against the far-right but it’s not in the streets that one fights their ideas.
NP: Do you know of other people from Nice who have been candidates in the presidential elections?
AM: Other people from Nice are not in my context, either because they are blocked by a political party, or because they do not want to invest in this word “politics” which has been misused for decades, it is evident that the City Hall of Nice will be part of our ambitions after the 2007 presidential election.
NP: In a few words, who is Alain Mourguy?
AM: Alain Mourguy is an ordinary citizen, who did not graduate from ENA… and I just ask that the 40 proposals be read and recognized as civilian, then we can disagree of course, but these proposals are CIVILIAN, DEMOCRATIC and especially COMMON SENSE.
