Two players exchange balls under a bright sun, the Alps in the background. The tennis club of La Tronche (Isère), a wealthy town in the suburbs of Grenoble, has brought out the terrace, where a few regulars enjoy a dessert in the shade, as quiet and weary as in a Claude Chabrol film. Olivier Véran marvels at the snow that resists the tops of the mountains, on this Friday, June 3. “I was born just on the other side of the Isère”he says, pointing to the invisible course of the river.
The former Minister of Health unfolds his biographical profile, from the local schools to the La Tronche University Hospital, a few hundred meters away. “People know me, say, ‘How’s your mum?’, or ‘I was in college with you!’ » The perfect CV of a “country boy”in the words of Aurore Meyrieux.
The young woman does not belong to the list of his supporters; she even stood against him in the legislative elections of June 12 and June 19, under the label of the National Rally. But the candidate insists: “Olivier Véran is much loved in the constituency, which is quite bourgeois and favorable to La République en Marche [LRM]. » With such adversaries, do we really have to get tired of campaigning?
If the climate had not cooled (a little) for the majority at the national level, the hypothesis of a victory for the former socialist in the first round was not excluded. In 2017, he had already won 47.2% of the vote at this stage of the ballot. “The first constituency of Isère, straddling Grenoble and its suburbs, is one of Emmanuel Macron’s areas of strength, the richest constituency in the department in terms of average per capita income.deciphers Simon Persico, professor of political science at Sciences Po Grenoble. Jean-Luc Mélenchon performs better there than at the national level, but remains at a limited level. » The New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) has also invested a novice, Salomé Robin, a 19-year-old student. Sign of a relative hope of victory.
“I am covid”
The challenge, for Olivier Véran, is probably not so much at the foot of the Alps as in Paris. After spending two years delivering bad news (and some good) to the French on the front lines of the Covid-19 epidemic, the ambitious 40-year-old almost saw the government train pass under his nose; he hoped to stay in place at the Ministry of Health, but Emmmanuel Macron chose to turn the page by appointing Brigitte Bourguignon in his place. “Olivier Véran is despite himself the face of a period that people did not likeexplains a close friend of the President of the Republic. Politics is tough. “I am covid…”sighed the person concerned with a friend, shortly before the presidential election.
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