Foundation of Glass (Saintonge 2024 Election Thread) [Semi-Closed]

Welcome to Foundation of Glass, the thread (RP thread/news-thread) about the Saintonge 2024 General Election. Read whatever you want in the title, I just want a catchy title, but "Castle of Glass" is already a Linkin Park song.

In-character, the Santonian General Election was on 25 May 2024, but because this thread is overdue, the dates I make my posts won't necessarily be IRL dates. There will be datestamps for each posts as to when they occurred ICly. Also generally, the thread will be in chronological order, but not always (hence the timestamps!).

OOC note: The thread is semi-closed, message me first before posting if you want to participate.

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L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Politics


by Luc-Martin Jasseron in Saintes, Pierre-Jules Cordaillat in Niort, and Marie-Mélisende Leckler in Ratisbonne
11 June 2022 - 1225h
SAINTES – last week, the Electoral Boundaries Commission has finished three out of the five remaining departments outstanding. The electoral boundaries for the Inde, the Besbre, and the Scyotte were all approved last week, leaving the Cenise and the Saine-et-Loine uncompleted.

The Electoral Boundaries Commission (CRdE, Commission de redécoupage électoral) is an ad hoc body under the Santonian elections commission, the Royal Elections Institute (IRE, Institut royal des elections). The Electoral Boundaries Commission is tasked to redraw the boundaries of the constituencies for the National Assembly of Saintonge after the reapportionment consequent to the 2020 decennial census.

The CRdE is not a single body, but a group of 90 committees: one for each Saintonge’s 89 departments and for the city of Saintes. The departmental CRdE is tasked to determine boundaries of the National Assembly districts (called circonscription électoral or "electoral circumscription" in Saintonge), and the boundaries of districts to departmental council elections. The membership of each departmental CRdE is composed of three career civil servants: the Returning Officer (directeur du scrutin) for the department’s IRE; the Departmental Registrar (greffier départemental) who is the head of the department’s civil registry branch of the Royal Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies (IRSEE, Institut royal de la statistique et des études économiques); and a judge selected from a neighbouring department’s Administrative Appeals Courts (Cours administratives d’appel). The judge chairs the departmental CRdE, with the two civil servants using their agency’s data to draw the proposed maps. All members are from independent constitutional organs, and, in the case of the judge, a branch separate from the legislature.

Process
The CRdE draws up a proposal based on the latest census. An electoral district must not vary by more than 5% from the average theoretical population of a department’s circonscription. Political boundaries must ideally be preserved, and other factors such as proximity, continuity, accessibility, and economic and habitation patterns, must be taken into account.

The CRdE then solicits comments and holds public hearings to listen to objections and suggestions. A hearing is also held for the legislature where the boundaries are intended for. For National Assembly constituencies, the departmental CRdE holds a public hearing with members of the National Assembly’s Permanent Electoral Subcommittee (a subcommittee of the Committee on Constitutional Organs) with the addition of that particular department’s deputies as ad hoc members.

Unlike most parliamentary hearings, the CRdE controls the proceedings. The three-member panel of the CRdE then analyses the comments, suggestions, and counter-proposals from the public and parliamentary members. The CRdE is in no way bound to follow the suggestions from the public or parliamentary deputies.

The CRdE then issues a final report with the final boundaries of the constituencies for the decade.

Saintes
The map for the city of Saintes (30 seats), the unit with the greatest number of constituencies, naturally attracted a lot of comments and took months to finish. One particular irate commenter was Radical Party faction leader Jean-Étienne Genêt, who was being drawn into the same district (Saintes – Val-de-Salvail) as Liberal deputy Charles-Mathurin Morisson. Judge Marie-Grâce Langlais-Théorêt, as chair of Saintes CRdE, expelled Mr Genêt from the proceedings in the National Assembly during the parliamentary hearing.

Five Holdouts
As eventful and lengthy as the Saintes hearings were, there were five other departments whose CRdEs faced challenging circumstances. All of them finished later than the Saintes CRdE. Four of them – the Besbre, the Cenise, the Inde, and the Saine-et-Loine – gained seats in the reapportionment; the other one, the Scyotte, did not gain a seat but demographically shifted a lot within its boundaries. The vastly different proposed boundaries caused the hearings to become protracted.

Inde
The oddly-shaped southern department of the Inde, with only four seats, was not expected to be the scene of competing proposals. The CRdE of the Inde actually had three proposals on the table when it started deliberations on January 2021: one from the IRE, one from the IRSEE, and an unsolicited one from the departmental council of the Inde which was supported by the deputy from Inde-2, Jean-Joseph Michaud (Liberal). All three submitted counter-proposals six months later, leaving CRdE chair Judge Philippe-Léonard Notebaert to craft a compromise proposal. Both of the Inde’s Returning Officer and Departmental Registrar voted against Judge Notebaert’s proposal on October 2021. With the Inde’s CRdE unable to agree amongst themselves, an extraordinary CRdE was constituted by the IRE on January 2022. The CRdE of the department of Vauperté (which has only one seat) was assigned to the Inde.

The Vauperté CRdE, led by Judge Eugène-Luc Riedinger, started the process all over again for the Inde but plowed through the objections to its proposal. At the crux of the matter was to whether split the city of Creusenac and the disposition of the upper Arve valley comprising the intendance of Martinpuich. The final plan released on 6 June 2022 centred Inde-2 (Creusenac-Ville) on the city of Creusenac, which was previously split between Inde-1 and Inde-2. The intendance of Martinpuich was split between the Inde-4 district anchored by Beauraing, while the major part of the intendance, including the Arve valley and the town of Martinpuich itself, remained in Inde-3. Inde-3 then gained the downstream (western) suburbs of Creusenac. This meant Inde-3 is the newly-created incumbent-less district; National deputy Baudouin-Tjeerd Blanckaert’s hometown is Beauraing, in Inde-4 (Terres-de-Beauraing). Inde-3 (Creusenac-Ouest – Martinpuich) is expected to be competitive in the upcoming election; Inde-1 (Inde Bavaroise) has become safer for National deputy Huldéric Brosterhous as it was stripped of its slice of Creusenac.


Besbre
The Besbre gained one seat due to population growth in its four main cities of Niort, Dieppe, Bellegarde-sur-Loine, and Bellême. The formerly largely rural Besbre-1 was split into the mixed rural-suburban Besbre-1 (Aubusson – Gâtine) and Besbre-2 (Annebault – Basses-Landelles). Aubusson – Gâtine now reaches the northern and eastern exurbs of Niort and the cross-river suburbs of Bellême. Annebault – Basses-Landelles also extends to the outermost exurbs of Niort and Dieppe. Current Besbre-1 deputy Germain-Luc Corolleur objected to splitting his constituency that previously contained the rural intendancies of Aubusson and Annebault: “it’s disempowering to rural voices in favour of urban and suburban ones.” The town councils of Aubusson and Annebault also protested, even though these two towns anchor their respective new districts.

The city of Niort also commented about being split between the urban-suburban Besbre-6 (Niort-en-amont) and Besbre-7 (Niort-en-aval), even while the neighbouring city of Dieppe was entirely included in one constituency.

In the end, despite the lengthy time that it listened to the comments, the Besbre CRdE paid no heed to much of the suggestions. The Besbre CRdE made only minor boundary adjustments and issued the final report on 8 June 2022.


Scyotte
Neighbouring Scyotte also took a while to finish its maps even though its number of seats remained unchanged at nine. Compared to its rural hinterlands, the Tri-Cities area of Aubeterre, Neuilly-sur-Loine, and Montmirail grew faster – which meant that each city could now have their own standalone constituencies. Previously, the three city centres and their downtown cores were placed in Scyotte-6, while the rest of the cities were placed in suburban-rural districts. The current map reconfigures Scyotte-6 and its adjacent districts into the urban Scyotte-8 (Aubeterre-Ville), the suburban Scyotte-7 (Aubeterre-Métropole), the mixed urban-suburban Scyotte-5 (Montmirail), and the mixed urban-rural Scyotte-2 (Neuilly-sur-Loine – Pécorade). The three cities will no longer have a common district and will have their own ones. The changes also led to the creation of an entirely different Scyotte-6 (Scyotte-Sud-Est), a rural seat encompassing the southeastern quarter of the department.

Complaints were mostly hinged on the splitting of the urban core of the Tri-cities area. The Scyotte CRdE emphasised respecting the political boundaries, as Aubeterre, Neuilly-sur-Loine, and Montmirail are under the jurisdiction of three different intendancies. The existence of the old Scyotte-6 was an anomaly according to the CRdE, having been created after the 2010 census when the population of the cities were smaller.

The new district boundaries set up a battle between two existing deputies: former Finance Minister Xavier-Bertrand Vergnet (Liberal) from the old Scyotte-6 and Pierre-Baudry Baucheton (National) from the old Scyotte-7. Both of their homes are now located in the new Aubeterre-Ville district. The Scyotte CRdE finalised the boundaries on 10 June 2022.

Two Remaining
Only two remaining departments have yet to submit their maps, the Cenise (13 seats), and the Saine-et-Loine (24 seats). The Cenise CRdE is on the finalisation stage, while the Saine-et-Loine CRdE is stuck in the public hearing stage, with another round of public hearings set in the next two months.

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
11 June 2022 - 1730h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
15 June 2022 - 2320h

SAINTES – In a shock 4-3 split decision issued earlier today, the Seventh Division of the Civil Chambers of the Court of Cassation recognized the minority Radical Party faction of Jean-Étienne Genêt (Saintes-29) as the Radical Party. As the Court of Cassation is Saintonge’s highest court for civil matters, the decision in the case Genêt v. IRE is likely final.

This decision reverses the November 2021 determination of the Santonian Royal Elections Institute (Institut royal des élections, IRE) that the majority Radical Party faction of Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais is the real Radical Party. Mr Genêt’s group appealed the IRE’s decision to the Court of Cassation.

It was, however, not a complete victory to the anti-immigrant Genêt faction, as the Court of Cassation’s decision allows the individual chapters to disaffiliate with the Radical Party to form their own party. The court also outlined a formula for division of party assets should the local chapters are split on whether to remain or leave.

Radical Party split
Long reputed to be the most monolithic and top-down of the four major political parties in Saintonge, the Radical Party imploded spectacularly in 2021. After its longtime party strongman Georges Conté de Caunes (GCC) died of a stroke in February 2021, Saintes deputy Jean-Étienne Genêt became the interim party leader.

Genêt and GCC’s grandson and suppléant, François-André Conté de Caunes, then took the party to a hardline anti-immigration stance, supported by another suppléant, François-Louis Villault. Despite Mr Genêt being simply the interim leader, he and the two new deputies pushed the party to far-right stances, including various statements widely seen as xenophobic.

During the acrimonious Radical Party congress in July 2021 to select a new leader, the more moderate majority of the Radical Party coalesced around Simbruins deputy Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais as the leader. However, Radical Party being a top-down party, the leader has wide leverage over the workings of the party. The Genêt faction used obscure rules to change the membership of the party congress, revoking the credentials of departmental delegations that were pledged to Beaumarchais and replacing them with Genêt loyalists. This led to two rival Radical Party conventions being held, the smaller one electing Mr Genêt and the larger one electing Mr Beaumarchais.

The Radicals’ longtime partner in the Coalition, the Liberal Party, tried to mediate but to no avail. The moderate Beaumarchais faction managed to one-up the Genêt faction by expelling them from the Radical Party caucus in the National Assembly. Thus, the Beaumarchais faction is the recognised Radical Party in the National Assembly.

Court Decision
The decision by the Court of Cassation upends the status quo. On its face, it meant that the Genêt faction is the legitimate Radical Party and that this faction would inherit the Radical Party name, organisation, and assets. The Court of Cassation determined that “while the methods employed by Mr Genêt and his allies can be construed as distasteful, they are neither contrary to the internal statutes of the Radical Party nor contrary to Santonian laws.”

Mr Genêt himself celebrated the court decision as a victory. “We are the true, legitimate Radical Party! No time for impostor losers. Time to make Saintonge great again!”

However, the court decision does not give the entirety of the organisation and assets to the Genêt faction. In order to respect the “freedom of association”, the court allowed individual chapters and local units of the Radical Party to disaffiliate from the national Radical Party. The disaffiliating groups can take their organisation and assets with them and form a new organisation that should not use the Radical Party name. Should the individual chapter be deadlocked on whether to stay or go, the court outlined a formula for the division of assets based on the vote of members in the chapter.

Reactions
As of press time, at least 103 local Radical Party chapters have quickly disaffiliated from the national Radical Party, including a dozen department-level party chapters: Côtes-du-Nord, Basses-Brômes, Basse-Bléone, Rance, Inde, Aure, Ravennes, Taur, Dronne, Tech, Vauperté, and Lisle. After announcing their disaffiliation, two chapter presidents, Archambault Ducoeurjoly of the Dronne and Joël Batifoulier du Tremble of the Lisle, issued an invitation to form a new party with like-minded groups and offered interim leadership to Mr Beaumarchais.

Several Radical Party chapters of large cities have also moved ahead of their departmental chapters and announced disaffiliation: the organisations in the large cities of Avéry, Mirande, Loudun, Malines, and Beaune also disaffiliated.

Other organisations look headed for a split, especially the larger ones in the departments of the Simbruins, the Bouches-du-Rhâne, and the Corb. While the Radical Party chapters of the city of Saintes, the Saine-et-Loine, and the four Griffonian departments have pledged to remain in the now Genêt-run Radical Party, it sparked local, lower-level disaffiliations. In Saintes, the Radical Party organisations in the neighbourhoods of Les Sables-près-Saintes (22^nd arrondissement), Saint-Brice-des-Martyrs (18^th arrondissement), and Grande-Synthe (22^nd arrondissement), and the entire section of the Radical Party in the 20^th arrondissement held an emergency evening meeting to disaffiliate from the Saintes Radical Party.

Benefits
According to political science analyst Marie-Danielle Ponceau, the Genêt faction is set to benefit massively from the decision as they inherited the status of the political party. This makes it easier for them to run candidates in the 2024 elections. Setting up national political parties is notoriously difficult in Saintonge. According the Saintonge’s elections law, a certified national political party must meet any of the following: (1) have at least 12 deputies in the National Assembly, (2) win at least 3% of the first-round vote in the last National Assembly elections, with the party getting at least 1% of the vote in half of the departments, or (3) collecting the signatures of at least 5% of registered voters in at least two thirds of the departments (60 out of 90). For a party to be certified, it must meet any of those three criteria; a party may also be decertified if it does not meet any of the three. The Radical Party’s status will be revisited only after the results of the next National Assembly elections, as decertifications only occur after elections.

The decision puts the onus on the Beaumarchais faction to set up a new party and have it certified as a national political party. As it stands, any party that they will create can be certified as a national political party, as their parliamentary caucus has exactly 12 members, the minimum needed.

Parliament
The President of the National Assembly Sophie-Anne Laliberté (Basses-Brômes-1) issued a statement saying that her office will be studying the Court of Cassation decision. However, Damien-Michel de Lauriston (Haine-7), Vice-President of the National Assembly for the Beaumarchais faction, said that they expect “that nothing will change. Our group still meets the minimum number to form a caucus, they don’t. They might have a party, and we technically don’t… but we have a caucus in Parliament. That’s what matters.”

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
16 June 2022 - 0923h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
16 June 2022 - 1700h
SAINTES – the Liberal Party, the Radical Party’s longtime partner in the Coalition, is divided over the decision of the Court of Cassation to recognise the hardline far-right anti-immigrant faction of Jean-Étienne Genêt as the true Radical Party.

While interim Liberal leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann’s (Lauter-2) statement said that “The Liberal Party is satisfied that the Court of Cassation has resolved with finality and equity the thorny issue between the two factions. The Liberal Party looks forward to cooperation with our partners in providing credible opposition to the dysfunctional National government.” However, the identity of the ‘partners’ wasn’t clarified.

Which partners?
This was the question posed to Mr Baumann in an ambush interview earlier today. “Our partners, of course, you know them,” was the quick answer, leaving reporters and the public still mystified on who Mr Baumann was referring to.

“The Liberal Party is now being placed in a quandary on who to partner with,” opined political science analyst Marie-Danielle Ponceau. “Their old partner the Radical Party, which is now being legally taken over by the Genêt faction; or the new party that the Beaumarchais faction is setting up? The former was loyal to the Liberals during the Brudeau issue but may be electorally toxic; the latter is closer to them ideologically but are seen as unreliable.”

Factionalism brewing
There is a risk that the Liberal Party, a less monolithic and more heterogenous party, gets torn asunder between groups that favour the Beaumarchais faction, and groups that favour the Genêt faction. Prominent among the pro-Beaumarchais group are the majority of deputies from southern Saintonge led by Matthieu-Folcuin Troendle (Basses-Brômes-4) and Émile-Albert Schweighoffer (Ill-2). Those that favour the Genêt faction are mostly deputies from eastern Saintonge, such as Jean-Martin-Philippe Caire du Lhut (Sarine-3) and Michel-Fernand Roux de Bézieux (Simbruins-8).

The dangers are more acute as Mr Baumann himself is also an interim leader. After the resignation of former Prime Minister Jean-Louis Hauteclocque de Champtoceaux due to the disastrous result for the Coalition in the 2019 general elections, Mr Baumann became interim leader. In 2020, Mr Baumann’s interim designation was simply extended to 2022 as the Liberals tried to replenish its much-depleted talent pool after the defeat of so many Liberals in 2019.

The Liberal Party convention set later on January 2023, to determine who will lead the party for the 2024 Santonian general elections.

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
17 June 2022 - 1002h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Politics


by Luc-Martin Jasseron in Saintes
1 July 2022 - 0802h
SAINT-OCÉAN (Cenise) – yesterday, the Electoral Boundaries Commission (CRdE, Commission de redécoupage électoral) for the department of the Cenise has approved its electoral maps for the upcoming National Assembly elections, set to take place no later than May 2024.

Electoral Boundaries Commission
The CRdE is an ad hoc body tasked to redraw the boundaries of the constituencies for the National Assembly of Saintonge. It is staffed by nonpartisan civil servants. The Cenise CRdE was chaired by Judge Paul-Brendan Caill de Kératry of the Administrative Court of the Boëme, with Cenise’s Returning Officer (directeur du scrutin) Jacques-Louis Merceret and Cenise’s Departmental Registrar (greffier départemental) Catherine-Marie Dubuisson as members.

Timeline
The Cenise, with thirteen seats, was the penultimate department to finish. (The Saine-et-Loine CRdE still has not finalised its maps.) The growth of the Saintes suburbs and exurbs in the intendancy of Sancoins meant that the department gained an extra seat.

The Cenise CRdE took a long time because of the volume of comments, suggestions, and proposals the CRdE received. The public hearings ended only last May 2022. This is because the Cenise has a lot of seats and most of the population is concentrated in a single intendancy – Sancoins, which effectively functions as a suburb of Saintes. Sancoins experienced higher than average population growth between 2010 and 2020.

Sancoins
The boundaries in question in proposed map involved 12 of the 13 districts in the intendancy of Sancoins. The city of Sancoins itself was initially divided on an east-west axis between Cenise-3 and Cenise-4. The Sancoins city council successfully argued that the city would be better divided on a north-south axis, such that Cenise-4 would be entirely contained within the city.

To compensate Cenise-3, several towns in the lower Sterlanges valley were transferred to Cenise-3. Cenise-3 now only contains the northern, lower-density neighbourhoods of Sancoins, which will have similar demographic patterns with the rest of Cenise-3. This meant that the new district that Cenise gained would be around Sancoins, which was to be renumbered Cenise-5 and named Sancoins-Ouest – Val-de-Juin. This was contested by both Aulnay-sous-Saintes and Villeurbanne, the two other large towns within the intendancy. Both argued that because both of these cities have grown too, they deserved to get the new seat.

The CRdE then moved Cenise-7 (now Cenise-8, Aulnay-sous-Saintes-Ouest – Torontines) into Aulnay-sous-Saintes by shedding off some towns in the Bâcle Valley. Aulnay-sous-Saintes-Ouest – Torontines now includes multiple boroughs in Aulnay-sous-Saintes, including Édmondville, Sault-Sainte-Marie, Sainte-Régine, and Étobicoq.

The erstwhile Cenise-8, now Cenise-9 (Transcollines) gained a slice of Villeurbanne while detaching off the twin villages of Sainte-Angéline-la-Jolie and Le Plessis-la-Jolie to Cenise-12. The entire Bâcle Valley from Givors to Vaubâcle was joined into one district, Cenise-12 (Val-de-Bâcle). The changes meant that two incumbents were moved out of their districts. Vaubâcle resident Lucien-Joseph Chambonnet (National) of the current Cenise-7 was moved into Val-de-Bâcle, the same district as current Cenise-12 deputy Geneviève Masteau-Lacoste (National). Also moved into Val-de-Bâcle is current Cenise-10 deputy Gérard-Luc Hauboursin (National), who lives in Sainte-Angéline-la-Jolie. Val-de-Bâcle will turn into a headache for the National Party with three incumbents in the same district.

All three sitting MPs objected to the Val-de-Bâcle district, with Hauboursin instead presenting an alternative map restoring the Jolie Valley to Transcollines and instead giving a slice of Villeurbanne to Val-de-Bâcle. Chambonnet produced a competing map which pushes Val-de-Bâcle further into the Jolie Valley to compensate for his hometown of Vaubâcle being returned to Aulnay-sous-Saintes-Ouest – Torontines.

The CRdE rejected both proposals and retained the Val-de-Bâcle district, with only minor boundary changes in the town of Champlâtreaux, which passed to Cenise-13 (Montagnes-Rouges).


Cenise Béthonne
Even the district where the boundaries were not disputed, Cenise-1, attracted comments about its proposed name Cenise Béthonne (“Bethanian Cenise”). Mayor Albert-Florent Levesque (Liberal) of Vénaux-sur-Cenise objected, arguing that the name for Cenise-1 is inappropriate as its boundaries include towns that are neither Bethanian-speaking nor traditionally part of the old province of Bethany. Multiple town councils, mostly Liberal- or Radical-controlled, opposed the name. The campaign against “Cenise Béthonne” prompted many towns within the district to write letters to the Cenise CRdE to support the name. Even ancestrally Santonian-speaking towns, mostly National-controlled, stood by the name. Mayor Jonathan Vertefeuille of Montoir-de-Saintais (National) said that “our town’s name proudly declares it is Santonian-speaking and is part of the traditional province of Saintais, and not Bethany. But Montoir-de-Saintais supports the name of ‘Cenise Béthonne’ because we do recognise that a big part of our department used to be part of the province of Bethany.”

“How far back in history do you want to go?” quipped Mayor Marc-René Orhon of Monsireigne (National) during the public hearing in Saint-Océan. “Before our villages became the borderlands between the provinces of Saintais and Bethany, we were all part of the Bethonic Confederation. We do not have a problem with the name; it’s just a name. What matters is that we are represented equally.”

The heatedness of the debates during an April 2022 hearing prompted Cenise CRdE chair Judge Caill de Kératry to call for a recess. Later when the name for Cenise-1 came up to vote, Judge Caill de Kératry recused himself from voting, as he is a Bethanian-speaking judge from the neighbouring department of the Boëme. Both the Returning Officer and the Departmental Registrar of the Cenise voted for the name Cenise Béthonne.

Final Boundaries
The final boundaries are as follows:

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
1 July 2022 - 1622h

Parti Radical #SaintongePropre @PartiRadical • 2 y


The wise Court of Cassation did something right and restored this account to the TRUE RADICAL PARTY. Sadly, the impostors trashed this account before surrendering it to us.

We will rebuild this account just as the Radical Party will rebuild, recover, and clean Saintonge!

#PartiRadical #TrueRadicals #RetourAuxRacines #RécupérerLeSaintonge #SaintongePropre

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3.6K Retwitches • 11.2K Likes

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Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh (L'Indépendant) @TLBurlbaughOfficial • 2 y


During the past four days, the Radical Party in Saintes is experiencing a wave of disaffiliations following the Court of Cassation decision. As of Sunday night, 9 PM, 19 June 2022, two whole arrondissement chapters plus twenty other borough chapters have disaffiliated. The borough chapters left the Radical Party after their arrondissement chapters confirmed their loyalty to the Genêt leadership.

Disaffiliating are:
Chapters in the 3rd arrondissement (all 8 borough chapters) and 20th arrondissement (all 8 borough chapters)
Chapters in St-Maur (2nd), Bièvres, Combault, Pontamousson, St-Baudouin (4th), Maurepas, St-Marc-des-Fossès (6th), Chantilly, Repentigny (8th), Montcontour-en-Saintais (9th), Les Baleines (10th), Beauregard, Chambly, St-Thurstan-hors-les-Murs (12th), Blondefontaine, St-Philibert (14th), Châteaurenard, St-Casimir (17th), Grande-Synthe, Les Sables-près-Saintes (22nd).

Radical Party chapters in the 5th, 9th, and 19th arrondissements, plus chapters in Terrebonne (4th), Gadencourt, Montdragon-près-Saintes (6th), and Charlevoix (14th) are holding emergency meetings on whether to disaffiliate.
#Politique #Saintes #PartiRadical #RompreRadical

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10.6K Retwitches • 88.5K Likes

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L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
24 August 2022 - 2020h
SAINTES – earlier today, at the historic Outremont Tennis Court in Saintes, the ex-Radical Party faction led by Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais and his allies launched the new party to comply with the Court of Cassation decision. Named the Libertarian Party (Parti libertarien), the party is dedicated to the promotion of civil liberties, laissez-faire capitalism, and small government.

Political analysts generally place the new party to the right of the Saintonge’s Liberal Party on economic matters and to the left of the National Party in social matters. While this might seem superficially similar to the old Radical Party that they split off from, the Libertarian Party is more internationalist and less xenophobic than the Genêt Radical Party.

Establishment
The establishment of a new party was necessitated by decision of the Court of Cassation in the Genêt v. IRE case. This recognises the far-right, xenophobic faction of Jean-Étienne Genêt as the legal “Radical Party”, while allowing local chapters and members to split off to form a new party.

New Party
That the Libertarian Party was able to spring up in a short time was also thanks to the Genêt v. IRE decision, as it allowed disaffiliating units to bring their assets and organisations into the new party. During the course of two months since the Genêt v. IRE decision, only sixteen departmental chapters remained within the Radical Party; fifty-five defected completely to the Libertarian Party; and nineteen split into two factions.

The Saintes chapter remained within the Radical Party, but suffered the complete loss of three arrondissement chapters (3rd, 5th, and 20th) and four dozen borough associations. According to independent estimates, nationally, about a third of the Radical Party’s membership and organisation remained; two-thirds defected to form the Libertarian Party. The largest unit to completely defect was the section in the department of the Basses-Brômes, which was also able to keep in line its chapters in the cities of Brive and Perthus. The Basses-Brômes will be the largest department without a Radical Party organisation.

Leaders
The leader of the now-Libertarian party in the Basses-Brômes, Héloïse-Philippine Watremez-Talpaert, helped laid the foundation of the new party. Responding to the invitations of the heads of the first two disaffiliating departmental chapters, Archambault Ducoeurjoly (Dronne) and Joël Batifoulier du Tremble (Lisle), Watremez-Talpaert, along with Corentin-Charles Beaufrère de Kervereguin (Rance) and Cédric-Lambert Duroy de Chaumareys (Ravennes) formed an exploratory committee last June to plan for the new party along with Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais and the National Assembly caucus. By the end of July, they managed to rally almost all of the disaffiliating units to form a new party.

During the penultimate day of the founding convention of the Libertarian Party, Jules-Antoine Beaumarchais was elected leader. Batifoulier du Tremble, Watremez-Talpaert, and Samuel-Georges de Niverville (Haine) were selected as members of the executive committee.

The party’s manifesto will be released later today. It is expected that the Libertarian Party will pursue certification as a national political party in order to run candidates in the next election for the Santonian General Assembly, which will take place not later than 2024.

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25 August 2022 - 0855h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
29 August 2022 - 2003h
SAINTES – After the announcement of the formation of the Libertarian Party during the weekend, Saintes MP and former Minister for Church Affairs Jean-Charles Caruhel (Saintes-29) defected to the Radical Party, first thing in the Monday morning earlier today. In a letter to President of the National Assembly Sophie-Anne Laliberté (Basses-Brômes-1), Mr Caruhel announced his departure from the Libertarian Party caucus to join the non-iscrits (caucus-less) group of the five Radical Party MPs. It can be remembered that Mr Caruhel was the only Radical Party MP not to sign the letter to expel Jean-Étienne Genêt and his four allies from the National Assembly’s then-Radical Party caucus (now the Libertarian Party caucus).

Caucus maintained
Mr Caruhel’s defection does not destroy the Libertarian Party caucus in the National Assembly, as the minimum number of deputies to form a caucus in ten. The Libertarian Party caucus now counts eleven members.

The defection also does not mean anything much to the Radical Party in the National Assembly, as they now only have six deputies, insufficient to create a caucus.

Interference with the certification process
The real consequence of Mr Caruhel’s defection is that it impedes the Libertarian Party’s certification process as a national political party. To be certified as a national political party, a party must meet any of the following: (1) have at least 12 deputies in the National Assembly, (2) win at least 3% of the first-round vote in the last National Assembly elections with the party getting at least 1% of the vote in half of the departments, or (3) collect the signatures of at least 5% of registered voters in at least sixty departments.

Certification needed
In Saintonge, political party registration is different from political party certification. “Registration” merely entails forming the legal framework of the organisation and registration as a political entity with the Royal Elections Institute (Institut royal des élections, IRE). In Santonian electoral law, “certification” means that the registered political party has the capacity and is recognised to run candidates for elections at a certain level of government. A political party may only be certified at a local level, or certified as a national party. The certification process ensures that nuisance or frivolous candidates are excluded from the ballot.

Being certified as a national political party enables the party to easily run candidates to the National Assembly. Candidates who are not members of a certified political party must need to garner the valid signatures of 10% of the voters in the electoral circumscription to get ballot access – a much more difficult hurdle, one that even a former leader of a Santonian political party was unable to cross.

Roadblock
Mr Caruhel’s defection was widely seen as a roadblock to the Libertarian party’s certification process. It meant that the Libertarian Party now fails to meet the minimum number of deputies to be certified as a national political party. This necessitates a signature drive to collect at least 5% of registered voters in sixty departments.

Reactions
Radical Party leader Jean-Étienne Genêt implied as much, saying in an evening press conference with Mr Caruhel that orchestrating the defection was ‘payback’ for expelling their group from the Radical Party caucus.

Mr Caruhel was less inflammatory, stating that the reason for his defection was that “the Radical Party is already an established party, an established entity, that has the capacity to run in elections.”

“It’s an obvious jab at the new party,” remarked Archambault Ducoeurjoly, member of the executive committee of the Libertarian Party. “What’s paradoxical about Mr Caruhel’s statement is that the Libertarian Party would absolutely have had the certification and thus have the capacity to run candidates in national elections if only he did not leave.”

“I wonder how much did Genêt pay him?” wondered Libertarian Party organiser Hugbert Heldebaume.

Even some of Mr Caruhel’s future constituents were scathing. After the redistricting, Mr Caruhel’s putative electoral circumscription for the next parliamentary election will be Saintes-27 (Collines-de-Tuer-le-Diable), which includes the boroughs of Crépy-en-Saintais, Grandfesnoy, Hauteville, Montpensier, Rochecardon, Saint-Léger, Saint-Nicandre (20th arrondissement), and Saint-Saturnin (21st arrondissement). Bulk of Collines-de-Tuer-le-Diable is in the 20th arrondissement, in the northeastern hills of Saintes.

Mr Caruhel’s move is also paradoxical, as the ex-Radical Party in the 20th arrondissement of Saintes was one of the first to completely disaffiliate from the Radical Party. This section was also one of the founding groups of the Saintes Libertarian Party. Even Mr Caruhel’s suppléant Jules-Benjamin Castryck, chief of the party chapter in the 20th arrondissement, is now a member of the Libertarian Party. This meant that bulk of the Collines-de-Tuer-le-Diable district has no formal Radical Party organisation.

Mr Castryck scoffed at Mr Caruhel’s move. “He said he wants a political party organistion? Too bad, he doesn’t have one now, because there is no Radical Party organisation in the 20th arrondissement.”

During the redistricting process, the borough of Courdemanche was moved to Saintes-25 (Saintes-Est) and the borough of Saint-Saturnin was brought in. Saint-Saturnin is the only borough within the district that does not fall under the 20th arrondissement. Still, that would not give Mr Caruhel a base as the old Radical Party group in Saint-Saturnin also defected to the Libertarian Party three weeks ago. “He’s not going to get any support from us,” commented Saint-Saturnin Libertarian Party chief Charlène-Marie Loisel des Noyers, “what ‘established party that has the capacity to run in an election’ is he saying? There is no Radical Party in this district.”

Signature drive
A signature drive will be launched in all of Saintonge’s 90 departments to certify the party as a national political party. “If this is what the detractors want, if this is what we need, we will show our force if necessary. We are confident that we can collect the requisite signatures,” said Libertarian Party deputy leader Joël Batifoulier du Tremble, mayor of Pont-Saint-Prix (Lisle)

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30 August 2022 - 0840h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
09 September 2022 - 1143h
SAINTES – Prime Minister Anne-Douceline Courseaux, midway through her maternity leave after giving birth to twins last July, yesterday announced that she will not be returning to her position and to politics.

Resignation
“I have given it much thought; I love my country, I love my family,” she said in a press conference earlier at her hometown of Beaugency (Saine-et-Loine). “Having to choose between two is difficult. But I want to be brutally honest to the ones I love. There can only be one mother to my family, while Saintonge can have another prime minister. I know for a fact that this country will be in good hands with the National Party and whoever will be next Prime Minister will do what’s best for Saintonge. I can still serve the country in another capacity, again, eventually.”

Ms Courseaux had sent a letter to National Assembly President Sophie-Anne Laliberté that she will not be resuming her Saine-et-Loine-21 seat after her maternity leave ends; this means that her suppléant, Jourdain-Aubin Jamelin, will have to sit for the constituency for the rest of the parliamentary term that ends in 2024. This also meant that she had effectively resigned the prime ministership.


Uncertain Constitutional Situation
This puts Saintonge in an uncertain constitutional state, as no Prime Minister had ever resigned in the country’s 227-year history as a parliamentary democracy. When asked what would happen next, acting Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin had no definite answer. “Madame Courseaux had left big shoes to fill. Speaking for the National Party, we will be having another convention to select Madame Courseaux’ replacement as leader of the National Party.”

Would the next leader of the National Party become the next Prime Minister automatically?

“That we have to consult with the Constitutional Court,” Mr Lamblin replied, who then sought to assuage the public concerns. “I’ll still be here as the acting Prime Minister, Saintonge isn’t going headless. We still have a government.”

According to political scientist Brice-Gauthier Kermadec, the main constitutional question would be whether a new government would need to be approved by Parliament. “The Santonian Constitution does not explicitly state what happens when a Prime Minister resigns… it only states that new governments must be approved and have the confidence of Parliament. The question is, what is considered 'new'?”

“There are two precedents to be considered here. On one hand, Mr Lamblin’s accession as a caretaker Prime Minister didn’t need a parliamentary vote. Neither does replacing a single government minister or two.”

However, Kermadec pointed out that in all seven instances where the Prime Minister died in office, the successor government that was sworn-in needed to have an affirmative vote in government.

“Brice-Ulrich Charbonneau in 1822, Marc-Georges de Flesselles in 1832, Jean-Arthur-Pierre Maisonneuve de Briance in 1876, Thibault-Brieuc Kerdoncuff in 1898, Robert-Sébastien Lablatinière in 1922, Émile-François Delétraz in 1958, and Philippe Colet in 1997, all had to have their new governments approved in Parliament after their predecessors died.

“Saintonge nearly had an election called in 1898 after Prime Minister Matthieu-Nathanaël Lafourcade was assassinated; the parties were not able to agree on a Coalition until they coalesced around Prime Minister Kerdoncuff, who was still recuperating from his injuries.”

“This won’t be difficult because the National Party holds a supermajority in Parliament,” Kermadec said. “The question next is, who will the National Party choose?”

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09 September 2022 - 2340h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Raphaël-Thorsten Laberbourg in Ratisbonne
04 October 2022 - 1223h
RATISBONNE (Lauter)– even though the Liberal Party convention is months away in January 2023, the divisions that have been simmering in the party have boiled over to the public sphere.

Baumann will not run for leader
In a press conference in his home city of Ratisbonne yesterday, interim Liberal leader and Opposition leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (Lauter-2) made a surprise announcement yesterday that he will not be running for the leadership in the Liberal Party convention scheduled for January 2023. Widely seen as the frontrunner, he has encountered some pushback from the more right-wing elements within the party, mostly based in eastern Saintonge.

Mr Baumann, who represents a city in southern Saintonge, himself did not elaborate on the reasons why he took off his name for the leadership race. His only comment was “to maintain party unity.”

It was mostly his fellow southerners who completed the picture. “The easterners had been dead set against Paul for the past few months,” said deputy Kurt-Timothée Kleinhentz (Vauperté). “They’re the most vocal faction in the party. They’ve been pressuring Paul not to run.”

Deputy Matthias-Conrad Cruypenninck (Basses-Brômes-8) was forthcoming. “Ever since the party did not take an unequivocal stand on the Radical split, the eastern deputies became more critical of Paul.”

The Liberal deputy for overseas Santonians, Matthieu-Sébastien Lacépède, was even more candid. “Genêt v. IRE showed how they can break off and form a new party. They can do that and chummy up with the xenophobes,” Lacépède told LodeStar News. “What’s preventing them from doing that? Because they will be electorally toxic?”

Interim leader
Despite being the Liberal leader for almost three years already, Mr Baumann still has an interim designation. After the decimation of the Liberal bench in the 2019 election, former Prime Minister and Liberal leader Jean-Louis Hauteclocque de Champtoceaux (JLHC) resigned as leader and was replaced by Mr Baumann on an interim basis. In 2020, Mr Baumann’s interim designation was simply extended to 2022, ostensibly as the Liberals replenish their talent.

There were hints there were also other factors in play. “Baumann is one of the most conservative among the southern deputies,” said former Liberal deputy Maxime Jégo (Lac) in an Animaux Politiques podcast in August 2022. “That’s why he was palatable to the eastern faction. But he’s still a southerner. The easterners can’t accept that they don’t dominate the party anymore, but cannot elect their own – yet – as leader. So they’re keeping Baumann, who is acceptable to them, than have the party being led by someone they might not like.” Jégo used to represent the southern Bavarois department of the Lac before losing his seat in 2019.

According to the website RepresenteMoi, which tracks parliamentary votes, Baumann’s record is more to the right than the typical southerner Liberal deputy, but more moderate than the typical easterner Liberal deputy.

“Lacépède’s voting record is more moderate than Baumann’s,” Jégo observed. “And Lacépède is neither a southerner nor an easterner; he’s from Champagne.”

Power shift
After the 2022 election, power in the Liberal Party shifted towards southern base of the party. Jégo: “Before the 2019 electoral disaster, all the bigwigs of the Liberal Party were easterners. JLHC was an easterner – he is from Coire. National Assembly President [Jean-Claude] Arrivé was from the Corb, in the east. The leader of the Liberal Parliamentary caucus, Geoffroy de Saint-Astier, is from the east – he is Griffonian. The easterners are used to being close to the levers of power in the party.”

It also made for a more rightist Liberal Party. “Eastern Saintonge is the base of the Radical Party, so the Liberals in the east tend to run more on the right to fend off the Radicals,” according to political analyst Brice-Gauthier Kermadec. “Southern Liberals are more moderate.”

The current 32-member Liberal Party caucus in the National Assembly is now almost evenly split: it has 10 easterners and 10 southerners. The de facto two leaders of the Liberal Party are split: the interim Leader of the Opposition is the southerner Baumann and the leader of the caucus is the easterner Michel-Fernand Roux de Bézieux (Sarine-8).

Kermadec says that this greater southern influence tends to push the party towards the centre. Even while in government between 2015 and 2019, southern deputies such as Jean-Joseph Michaud (Inde-2) and Matthieu-Folcuin Troendle (Basses-Brômes-4) were responsible for toning down government proposals such as the widely-panned and disastrous Guérin liberalisations and preventing the Coalition government from completely scrapping Royal Santonian Navy projects.

This shift towards the centre was apparent even under Baumann. This reflects the fact that Baumann himself is more moderate than the eastern faction, plus the newfound influence of the southern faction in the party. Analyst Kermadec said that this is not entirely geographical: deputies from outside southern Saintonge such as Lacépède, Matthieu-Baudry Charlemont (Saintes-21), and Joël-Luc Braconnot (Doire-6) had been adopting moderate positions in recent years.

Easterner to lead again?
Without Baumann to run for the leadership, the next (and only) bigwig remaining is Roux de Bézieux. The easterners are already coalescing around Roux de Bézieux while the southerners are leaderless.

“The fact that the easterners threw out Baumann, the southerner who’s probably the most sympathetic to them, means that it’s probably not about principles or positions or platforms,” opined Jégo. “It’s about power.”

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04 October 2022 - 1710h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
23 September 2022 - 0805h
SAINTES – following the definitive resignation of Prime Minister Anne-Douceline Courseaux two weeks ago, an “interim” government headed by Prime Minister Matthieu-Gauvain Lamblin (National) was confirmed by the National Assembly yesterday in a party-line 378-47 vote. The Green Party abstained.

“Interim” Government
Despite its designation as an “interim” government, legally, the Lamblin government is not an interim government, as it has been confirmed by the National Assembly and approved by the monarch. In Saintonge, interim or caretaker governments do not require the approval of Parliament but only serve during a limited, transitory time. Interim governments also cannot undertake major decisions, such as passing budgets.

This Lamblin government, having been confirmed by the National Assembly and approved by the King, will be able to serve and make decisions as long as it still has the confidence of the National Assembly or at His Majesty’s pleasure.

However, Prime Minister Lamblin himself called it an “interim” government as the National Party’s convention for electing a new leader is set only for February 2023. Thus, the new National Party leader, and therefore the new Prime Minister selected by the party holding the supermajority of the National Assembly seats, will only be selected in February 2023.

“We cannot wait until February 2023 with only a caretaker government,” said Paul-Geoffroy Barèges (Seudre-3), caucus leader of the National Party in the National Assembly. “Hence the decision to confirm a new government, with an expectation that another one will be re-constituted after the National Party leadership elections.

Changes
There were some major changes in the Santonian government. Political analyst Brice-Gauthier Kermadec opined that “the frontrunners for next year’s National Party leadership race demanded ministerial positions to shore up their portfolio and their positions.”

The de facto leader of the labour wing of the National Party, the firebrand Jean-Quentin Hamel (Saintes-3), took the Ministry of Labour after Jeanne-Élisabeth Vertières-Clérembault (Bouche-du-Rhâne-3) yielded to him.

The moderate Camille Courrégelongue (Vesle-1), took the Public Works portfolio from James-Bertéric Battiston (Basse-Bléone-4).

Jules-Ruben Gorges (Cenise-12), from the clerical wing of the party, took the Ministry for Church Affairs, replacing Geneviève Boisjoly (Loine-1).

One prospective leader, though, did not make the cut. Georges-Fulbert Meslot (Loing-4), one of the leaders of the agrarian faction of the party, was replaced by Brice-Archambault Coutlée (Coole-4).

The labourites also managed to put one of their own in the finance ministry, with Zoë Enlart (Bouche-du-Rhâne-4) taking the ministry from the harried Maximilian Leclère de Rochebloine (Aubrac-2).

Also seeing changes were the Ministries of Culture and Sport, Health, Interior, and Transportation.

New Santonian Government

Aside from Prime Minister Lamblin, who is associated with the Rénovateur faction, the new Santonian government is almost evenly split: five ministers each are associated from the Rénovateur, moderate, and labour factions; and four are associated with the clerical/popular faction. No minister associated from the agrarian faction is part of the government.

“Maybe the agrarian faction has decided to be contrarian and be the opposition from within,” said Kermadec. “Or we might be seeing a dissociation of the agrarians from the National Party.”

The agrarian faction was historically dominant in the 2000s, supplying Prime Minister Philippe Colet (prime minister from 1997-2015), before the National government coming down in scandal in 2015. The Rénovateur faction arose within the National Party and became the internal opposition to the agrarians. To date, the agrarian wing of the party is still popularly associated with sleaze within National Party circles; hence only one – the important Agriculture Ministry – was given to this faction in the Courseaux government.

“Now with the other factions jockeying for influence in the government, the agrarians are going to be squeezed out because they’re viewed with suspicion by everybody,” added Kermadec.

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23 September 2022 - 1110h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
09 November 2022 - 1005h
SAINTES – Three months after the new Libertarian Party was forced to seek a signature drive to attain certification as a national political party, it is still having difficulty meeting the target.

To be certified as a national political party, the signatures of at least 5% of registered voters in at least two-thirds of the departments (sixty departments) must be collected. The status as a certified national political party is important, as it allows a party to run candidates for the National Assembly without having to go through the stiff hurdles to gain ballot access in each constituency.

Signature Drive
The signature drive was launched last September 2022, with party organisers and activists active throughout the country. During the first two weeks of the campaign, the Libertarian Party gathered 905,223 signatures throughout the country, but only reached the 5% target in only two departments: the Tage and the Arc.

By the end of September, in only three other departments were the targets reached: the Sebre, the Durance, and the Argens.

Timetable
While Santonian electoral law does not specifically indicate the time period of the signature drive for certification as a national political party, the effective time limit for signature collection is six months. This is because for the purposes of signature collection for referenda and elections, Santonian law recognises voters’ signatures as valid only within six months of the date of signature. Santonian citizens have to report a change in address to the Institut royal de la statistique et des études économiques (IRSEE, Royal Institute of Statistics and Economic Studies) within six months of moving; thus the six-month validity ensures that the elector is likely a resident of that jurisdiction by the time the signatures are processed.

Target
Reaching the target may be difficult for the Libertarian Party, as the ex-Radical Party only attained 13.89% of the first-round votes in the 2019 elections. If the estimates are correct that two-thirds of the former Radical Party disaffiliated to become the Libertarian Party, this would translate to only 9.26% of the vote. Thus, the Libertarian Party would have to get the signatures of more than half of the people that would’ve likely voted for it in the last election.

In addition, much of that Radical vote is concentrated in Saintes, the four Griffonian departments, and in eastern Saintonge. These are areas in which a smaller proportion of the Radical Party organisation disaffiliated. For example, in the Griffonian department of the Capoterre (30.24% Radical vote in 2019), the Libertarians are struggling to get signatures: they only obtained 4,588 signatures out of the 31,945 needed. The Radical Party of the Capoterre stuck with the Genêt faction, necessitating the Libertarian Party to build an organisation from the ground up.

Three departments to the east, in the Haine (16.24% Radical vote in 2019), the Libertarians were still twenty thousand signatures short of the 58,788 target after three months of signature collection. The Haine Radical Party split into the Radical and Libertarian parties.

Only a dozen departments
After three months, the party had collected 1,875,992 signatures throughout the country. However, only in only seven other departments did the Libertarians reached the target of 5% of the departmental electorate: the Lisle, the Saulx, the Hautes-Alpes, the Côle, the Dropt, the Leir, and the Tessin. The party expects to reach the target in the Basses-Brômes, the Luberon, and the Tamise by the end of the month, bringing it up to a total of fifteen.

The largest of these is the Lisle, where the party gathered the requisite 142,578 signatures. When the Radical Party of the Lisle (15.28% of the vote in 2019) split, the Libertarian Party took the lion’s share of the party apparatus, thanks to Pont-Saint-Prix mayor Joël Batifoulier du Tremble. As deputy leader of the departmental section, Mr Batifoulier du Tremble quickly pushed out the pro-Genêt elements within the Lisle’s Radical party organisation on the day of the Outremont convention.

Still, the success came with a heavy price. “It depleted our coffers,” admitted Rigaultville mayor Arthémile Gudillière de Rigault, a close ally of Mr Batifoulier du Tremble. “Our party treasury is nearly empty.”

Funds draining
The financial aspect is a threat to the party’s health and existence. Already the Libertarian Party chapters in the departments of the Epte, the Lys, and the Vesle had to suspend their signature drives owing to the lack of funds. Other department chapters are mulling temporarily suspending their signature drive, adding a fundraising campaign, or both, due to funding problems. Just next door to the Epte is the Saine-et-Loine (11.55% Radical vote in 2019), whose Libertarian Party chapter seemed to have abandoned its signature drive but had not formally suspended it. Given that the Saine-et-Loine has the second-highest signature target (274,684) and that the Libertarian Party only inherited one-eighth of the Radical Party organisation in the department, the Libertarian Party of the Saine-et-Loine focused itself on assisting other departmental organisations in meeting their targets. “We are just one department. The bar in the Saine-et-Loine is very high, we might as well use our resources wisely to help other departmental chapters reach theirs,” said Saint-Austin-des-Frontières councillor Georges-Ferrand Théveniaud, member of the executive committee of the Saine-et-Loine Libertarian Party. “We are thinking strategically.”

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09 November 2022 - 1622h

L'Indépendant > Mercanti > Top Stories


by Marie-Marthé Parmentier in Saintes
16 Jan 2023 - 0803h

RATISBONNE – during the penultimate day of the Liberal Party Convention yesterday, the centre-right Liberal Party of Saintonge elected Saintes deputy Timothée Ortonnes III as its new leader and likely Prime Ministerial candidate for next year’s general elections.

New leader
A first-term National Assembly deputy, Mr Ortonnes, 31, is the youngest-ever leader of the Liberal Party. He was first elected in 2019 to represent the electoral circumscription of Saintes-25, composed of the lower Saintes boroughs of Rive Droite – Nord, Basses-Saintes – Gauche, Saint-Marc-des-Fossès, Montalbeau, and Montdragon-près-Saintes.

There is an instant name recognition for the new Liberal leader as Mr Ortonnes is the second-generation heir to the beloved “Tim Ortonnes” chain of doughnut-and-coffee shops that is ubiquitous throughout Saintonge. The chain was established by his grandfather, Timothée Ortonnes père, an ice hockey player whose career was spent as a defenceman for Odinspylique de Ratisbonne, Ours de Bâle, Griffons du Nord, and ARS Saintes.

The new Liberal leader is the third of his name and is the son of Timothée Ortonnes fils, whose ice hockey career did not pan out and instead became an entrepreneur in Saintes. Timothée Ortonnes III never touched professional ice hockey, though he did play in the junior leagues. Mr Ortonnes instead went to business school after finishing his National Service. He then joined in managing his father’s businesses before being a deputy. While Timothée Ortonnes fils was a Liberal Party member, he was not a politician; Timothée Ortonnes III was politically active at a young age, holding positions in the Liberal Youth organisation.

Timothée Ortonnes III first ran in Saintes-25 in 2015, but was eliminated in the first round; Radical MP Victor-August Langevin-Dutoit won in that year. Running again in 2019, Ortonnes won second place to reach the runoff, which he won by 51% over National Party candidate Jules-Robert Brochier. He was just a handful of Liberal MPs to win in Saintes that year.

While nicknamed “Donut Mogul” due to the fact that he shares his name with the doughnut-and-coffee chain, Timothée Ortonnes III had admitted that he doesn’t partake in the day-to-day operations of the company. “Tim Ortonnes” is a publicly-traded company where the Ortonnes family trust owns half of the equity.

Compromise candidate
Initially not a candidate for the Liberal leadership, Mr Ortonnes emerged as a compromise candidate. With the Liberals divided into two major factions – the more moderate faction composed mainly of southern deputies and the more right-wing faction of eastern deputies – it took months of jockeying to determine who will be the next Liberal leader. The lobbying only intensified in the days leading up to and during the convention.

At first, it seemed that the right-wing faction of the party gained the upper hand in the previous months as eastern deputies led by deputies Jean-Martin-Philippe Caire du Lhut (Sarine) and Michel-Fernand Roux de Bézieux (Simbruins) forced interim Liberal leader Paul-Lenthéric Baumann (Lauter) to refrain from standing in the leadership contest. Mr Baumann is associated with the more moderate southern faction.

As the convention progressed, it became apparent that the moderate, ‘southern’ faction actually had the numbers and support to elect a leader. Large delegations such as those from Saintes, the Saine-et-Loine, and the Scyotte were rumoured to be inclined to support the southern delegation’s candidate, Matthieu-Folcuin Troendle (Basses-Brômes). Mr Troendle was vocal in opposing or toning down the easterners’ more right-wing fiscal agenda that included a return of the Guérin liberalisations of 2016, privatisation of the FNS and its companies, and cutting back on expenses such as new ships for the Royal Santonian Navy. Mr Troendle and his allies were also crucial in blocking the Liberals from allying with the Radical Party that was taken over by the far-right, xenophobic faction of Jean-Étienne Genêt.

Proposal
Eastern deputies Mr Roux de Bézieux and Marc-Clarence Petiteaux (Corb) suddenly proposed Mr Ortonnes as a compromise candidate, probably to stave off the large Saintes-area delegations from supporting Mr Troendle.

According to insider sources, it was a surprise even to Mr Ortonnes himself, fearing that his nomination would split the party further by making the northern Saintes-area delegations side with the eastern ones. Such an event would trigger an even split within the party, making selecting a leader more difficult. Mr Ortonnes tried to decline the nomination, but Mr Troendle himself was the one who convinced Mr Ortonnes to accept.

Mr Ortonnes was then elected as leader by acclamation during yesterday’s session.

Reasons
Many pundits put forward their hypotheses in the meteoric rise of Mr Ortonnes. “Because of his youth, it means that he is still malleable,” opined political science analyst Marie-Danielle Ponceau. “Both factions still think they can sway what they think will be an impressionable Liberal party leader. On the flip side, it means that the Liberal Party leader can be seen as weak.”

“The Liberals needed to appeal to the youth in the next election,” offered political analyst Brice-Gauthier Kermadec. “Having a young, telegenic, millennial candidate may help in that regard.”

“Mr Ortonnes is also a bit opaque when it comes to his positions,” added Ms Ponceau. “We don’t know yet exactly where in the spectrum of Liberal positions does he stand.”

“Mr Troendle had previously made known that he doesn’t really dream of bring Prime Minister of Saintonge,” commented Marie-Janine Pontenègre, politics editor of Le Journal Perthois, the local newspaper based in Perthus. Mr Troendle’s constituency is based around that city; he was previously the mayor before becoming the longtime MP for Perthus. “In one interview at a local news station, he has stated that he was taking those positions to prevent the Liberal Party from veering too far to the right and become unelectable like the Radicals. This may be why it was very easy for him to yield to Mr Ortonnes. Mr Troendle might have been assured by Mr Ortonnes on his red lines.”

translated by Thibault-Luke Burlbaugh
09 November 2022 - 1622h