He will not vote for any of the candidates running for the presidency of the Republicans (LR), at the beginning of December. Member of the Union for a Popular Movement (UMP), since its creation in 2002, the mayor of Toulouse, Jean-Luc Moudenc, does not find himself in the proposals of any of the three candidates for the presidency of the party, whether Eric Ciotti, Bruno Retailleau or Aurélien Pradié. « Everyone has a part of the truth, but none federates enough”considers the city councilor of the fourth largest city in France, in an interview with Figaropublished Monday, November 7, in which he announces his decision to leave LR.
For him, the right formation “is at an impasse”after having « recroquevill[ée] in a very right-handed position” and to have ” abandoned “ the center. Gold “yet it was the ambition of the UMP, then of the Republicans, to bring together in a large party all the sensitivities of the right and the center”, underlines this financial controller, also president of Toulouse Métropole. To his eyes, “this right-wing strategy of LR” had the effect of “push[er] many center-right voters to join the Macronist camp and this did not in any way prevent the dynamics of the far-right vote”.
“Affected”
Very hard with the leadership of his now ex-party, even if he says he is leaving it « without controversy » et at the end of a “old thinking”Mr. Moudenc also believes that he has abandoned “the urban electorate”focusing his speech “only on rurality and small towns”. “This choice of sociological narrowness in addition to that of political narrowness is unfortunate on the electoral level”, according to him. Successively municipal councilor, regional and departmental councilor, mayor of Toulouse from 2004 to 2008, after the resignation of Philippe Douste-Blazy, he had regained the mayor’s chair in 2014 after a socialist mandate. Re-elected in 2020, the 62-year-old elected official has always claimed a « Christian and European democratic centrism » like his political mentor, Dominique Baudis, former mayor of the city from 1983 to 2001.
After Christian Estrosi, the mayor of Nice, joined Horizons, the party of Edouard Philippe, in 2021, Jean-Luc Moudenc was the last mayor ranked on the right among the ten largest agglomerations in France. In 2015, he left the departmental presidency of LR, before positioning himself « Macron compatible »at the beginning of 2022, without saying “macronist”. The day after the legislative elections, Mr. Moudenc, whose municipal majority is already made up of elected LR and Renaissance, had called for “do not oppose blindly” presidential majority. Monday evening, the LR president of Haute-Garonne, Laurence Arribagé, also assistant in charge of sports at the town hall of Toulouse, said she understood her decision. “He seemed affectedshe says. He has always been loyal to LR and his candidates. He does not leave the party happily. »
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