A few thousand* people came from all over the department this Sunday to Levens in the Alpes-Maritimes for the country fair organized by the Alpes-Maritimes deputy and his political friends and supporters, including several local officials.
The awaited speech — in truth, it was a barrage of words spoken in a martial tone — by Eric Ciotti was expected to announce his intentions for the upcoming local political events.
As a preamble, the part against the government’s policy could not be missed, which was particularly virulent and, indicative of the times, filled with accusations for its lack of authority and firmness, the repertoire remaining the same and by its ideological nature increasingly akin to that of populists of all stripes.
Concerning the local aspect — election of the president of the Republicans in October and the municipal elections in 2020 — Eric Ciotti lifted the veil:
“I suggest you follow me to participate in the refoundation of the Republicans in the Alpes-Maritimes, I propose we carry together a clear line, based on loyalty and clarity!”
“Be convinced that I will do my part to serve Nice a hundredfold for what it has given me. With you, from Levens, I want to open a new path.”
Levens as the Rubicon?
With these two declarations, Eric Ciotti symbolically uttered the “alea jacta est”.
Great intentions, the problem is that these two positions are today “occupied” by Christian Estrosi — of whom Eric Ciotti was for a long time the lieutenant, before taking his own path and becoming his rival.
As for the departmental presidency of the party, for which Christian Estrosi may not have any particular appetite since he has distanced himself from the political line of the current leadership (which, on the other hand, Eric Ciotti supports and is a part of), but for the position of mayor of Nice… “hic manebimus optime” — the current incumbent will respond.
Jean Leonetti’s call for dialogue and pacification — pronounced not by chance on the eve of this gathering — was not heeded. Moreover, how to find a compromise when there are two opposing ambitions?
Eric Ciotti had built his national career with the ambition of becoming Minister of the Interior. Unfortunately for him, the candidates he chose to support, who could have offered it to him, and whom he supported with his all-encompassing style (Sarkozy for the 2012 presidential, Sarkozy and Fillon for the 2017 one) went astray and left him with his unfulfilled dream.
Failing that, while waiting for his political formation’s return to power, which doesn’t seem to be on the horizon, how to provide a satisfactory answer to his (legitimate) ambitions of power? Especially since, by law, he had to relinquish the presidency of the Departmental Council, even though he remains its eminence grise.
Then, can being a simple deputy (even if a quaestor), a simple departmental councilor (even if president of the finance commission) satisfy such dashed great ambitions?
The Mayor of Nice and consequently the Presidency of the Metropolis, aren’t they better? Then does this explain that?
The reading of the founding text of modern psychoanalysis “The Interpretation of Dreams” (Die Traumdeutung) by the good doctor Freud could better explain “the importance of the dream as a fulfillment of a wish.”
According to the scholar, “It functions to satisfy the dreamer. The dream therefore provides insight into the dreamer’s more secret desires, that is to say, those ‘repressed’ into his unconscious.”
Whatever the case…
