2023-07-23 06:00:15
Patrice Vergriete during the first council of ministers of the Borne 3 government, at the Elysee Palace, in Paris, July 21, 2023. CYRIL BITTON / DIVERGENCE FOR “THE WORLD”
In dark baronactor Kad Merad slips into the costume of Philippe Rickwaert, mayor of
Dunkirk cramped on its northern lands, which ends up “going up to Paris”. Patrice Vergriete hardly relishes the comparison with the hero of the series, whom he judges “caricature”. But, on the lands of the man who for almost ten years had been the mayor – classified as various leftists – of this northern city, we savor the similarities with the local political microcosm. Especially since his appointment as minister delegate in charge of housing, Thursday, July 20, in the government of Elisabeth Borne.
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The second real coup in politics for this man of popular origins, 55 years old. In the municipal elections of 2014, already, no one expected Patrice Vergriete to win over the former socialist baron Michel Delebarre, who had sat under the Dunkirk belfry for twenty-five years. The night he took the city from the man who was thought to be permanently unstoppable, his supporters sang the carnival songs of the northern port city at the top of their lungs. Of course, it ended on the Sing to Jean-Bartthe corsair of the city, a legend.
Minister on seven occasions and close to Pierre Mauroy, Michel Delebarre had gone to seek in 2001 this young polytechnician, also a graduate of the School of Bridges, to make him an assistant to the town hall. Some then thought that the champion of the accumulation of mandates was preparing his succession. Without suspecting that Mr. Vergriete would present a dissenting list against his mentor, after having slammed the door of the Socialist Party. Michel Delebarre was far from imagining that this son of a boilermaker from the shipyards of France would end up depriving him of the town hall. Patrice Vergriete will collect 55.3% in the second round, 12,000 votes apart!
“Macron before the hour”
On the spot, it is said that Michel Delebarre never recovered. On the evening of his rout, he even refused to announce the results of the ballot. Around the young elected, a somewhat heterogeneous group, representatives of civil society and cheerfully dynamited political lines. “He did Macron before his time”laughs a somewhat biting elected northerner: “Around him, there were not only big names. Inevitably, no one believed that the one who had taken over the management of the Dunkirk urban planning agency would beat Michel Delebarre. »
However, in the land of the giants that we take out on the days of major popular festivals, it turns out that Patrice Vergriete is cut out for this territory. With his 2.01 meters, the one his father saw as a basketball champion is not the last to sacrifice to the tradition of throwing herring from the balcony of the town hall during the famous carnival and knows how to rake his ground. In 2020, he was re-elected with more than 64% of the votes received in the first round.
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