The outgoing first vice-president of the Grand-Est region and member of the Horizons party, Franck Leroy, was unsurprisingly elected on Friday January 13 to succeed Jean Rottner (Les Républicains, LR), who resigned from all of his political office last month. A rapprochement with the presidential majority which was not done without gnashing of teeth, even if it had already been sketched out by the former mayor LR of Mulhouse, more open to cooperation with the presidential majority than on arrival of Eric Ciotti at the head of his own political family.
With a total of 96 votes in favor of his candidacy, Franck Leroy did not fill up with the votes he could have hoped for, faced with the competing candidacy of regional councilor Rassemblement national (RN) Laurent Jacobelli. He finds himself with an ever more composite majority, mixing political sensibilities ranging from LR to Renaissance. As for the Centrists and Territories group, made up of elected representatives of the presidential majority, it was finally divided in its support for the new regional president, after having initially announced that it wanted to vote for the mayor of Epernay.
“I voted white”confirms Lara Million, regional councilor Centrists and Territories and vice-president of the European Community of Alsace (CEA). “I am not at all hostile to Franck Leroy, but I do not wish to give blank checks because I expect action. I am for the exit of Alsace from the Grand-Est and I would like the new president to get in touch with Frédéric Bierry, president [LR] of the European Community of Alsace, to discuss the file. I think the discussions will be more cordial and I hope much more constructive than with Jean Rottner. »
Two years after the creation of the CEA, the future of the Alsatian territory within the greater region continues to arouse debate. Presiding over the voting session as dean of the assembly, the elected RN Jean-Louis Masson was delighted that the resignation, in a few months, of the president of the Grand-Est region and four of his vice -presidents could destabilize the community. “Let us at least hope that this discredit will facilitate the exit of Alsace from the Grand-Est and the re-establishment of our three former regions”he launched.
“Our approach is progressing”
The arrival of Franck Leroy, however, does not seem to open a boulevard to supporters of an exit from Alsace from the Grand-Est. “I want to reaffirm my attachment to the Grand-Est, to this region which contributes to the influence of our historical identities, which asserts itself more every day through the exercise of its skills. The vast majority of players we meet, in Champagne-Ardennes, in Lorraine and, much more often than one might think, in Alsace, consider that the stakes lie elsewhere and that the perimeter of our region is no longer a subject. To narrow our horizon would be a regression for all.declared the new president after his election.
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