2023-09-23 06:00:19
Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe presents his list for the senatorial elections, in Arras, August 29, 2023. MATTHIEU BOTTE / VOIX DU NORD / MAXPPP
The Senate takes care to indicate the age of Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe: “84 years and 5 months”. The outgoing senator from Pas-de-Calais, campaigning for his re-election, is the oldest of the 1,829 candidates who will run for a seat during the renewal of half of the second chamber, Sunday September 24. This would be his fourth term in Pas-de-Calais since 2001 – he claims to have hesitated to run again. “If journalists are still interested in the age of candidates…”he sighs, a little annoyed. “People have been seeing me for twenty years. I haven’t changed muchhe justifies. I still have energy. »
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Loïc Hervé, member of the same group in the Senate, the centrist Union, notes with humor that“he is in much better shape than Joe Biden”. The elected official from Haute-Savoie, 43 years old, who says he “a little speed”appreciate “wisdom” from one who is almost twice his age. “By dint of having prohibited mayors from being in the National Assembly, of wanting to change the fish in the bowl at each election, we find ourselves with a Parliament without memory and without roots”, regrets Mr. Hervé. The senators who serve more than four mandates are only a handful, he recalls, convinced that“we need big figures” in Parliament.
Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe is indeed a figure. He who began his political life in 1986 was mayor of Arras for sixteen years, from 1995 to 2011. He is a historic traveling companion of François Bayrou, whom he met in 1975, with whom he co-founded the MoDem in 2007. The incarnation of Christian democracy, he followed a classic path as a center veteran, in contrast to the novice profiles of the “new world” of Macronie. And today it has support ranging from the socialist left to the right of the Les Républicains (LR) party. “I am a humanist, a social centrist and open”says the person concerned, who even opened his municipal majority “up to the secretary of the communist section”.
“I’m not a shoemaker”
Today, Jean-Marie Vanlerenberghe claims to be in the majority of Gérard Larcher (LR), the president of the Senate, although he supported Emmanuel Macron in 2017 and 2022. Number two on his list is Brigitte Bourguignon, former socialist who became a minister in 2020, before being beaten in the legislative elections of 2022. The senator knows that his position can make one dizzy. “But the Senate is not the National Assemblyhe defends. The border between presidential majority and senatorial majority is not airtight. We are real politicians who seek compromise, not systematic rejection. »
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