cacophony within the capital of the Somme | EUROtoday

In Amiens, native political life is as tortuous because the meanders of the Somme winding by way of the center of the town. In the Picardy capital, capital of the Somme (136,000 inhabitants), the place the President of the Republic, Emmanuel Macron, was born, round ten lists had been introduced simply over two months earlier than the municipal elections, on March 15 and 22.

Such a determine is remarkable on this metropolis having shifted to the suitable below the previous mayor (UDF) Gilles de Robien (1989-2002, 2007-2008), minister of Jacques Chirac. Except for a brief socialist parenthesis between 2008 and 2014, the town – which misplaced its standing as regional capital to Lille with the creation, in 2016, of the Hauts-de-France area – is managed by a majority from the suitable and the middle. This relies on a 2014 settlement between the UDI and Les Républicains (LR): to the previous, the keys to the city corridor and to the latter these of the Amiens metropolis, an agglomeration of 173,000 inhabitants and 39 municipalities, primarily rural, with significantly in depth powers.

But the shock resignation, in 2024, of mayor Brigitte Fouré (UDI), 70, who handed over to her first deputy, Hubert de Jenlis (numerous heart), 57, left its mark. Elected by a slim majority, this insurer, who has handed by way of a number of political events (Radical Party, UMP, UDI then Renaissance), is much from unanimous in his personal camp, from which a number of dissident candidacies emerge. Alain Gest (Les Républicains, LR), 75 years outdated, the highly effective president of Amiens Métropole, who introduced his withdrawal from political life throughout a press convention on Friday January 9, brings his “negotiated support” to the outgoing mayor, who has not but formalized his candidacy.

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