Many people wanted to attend the event. So many that the town hall lobby couldn’t accommodate everyone. Several dozen people gathered behind the windows of the municipal council chamber, taking advantage of the external speakers. And when the elected officials made their entrance, everyone started applauding the team that would read the new mayor.
Opening the session, Agnès Rostagno, former 1st deputy to Jean-Sébastien Vialatte, thanked the latter for “having served the city all these years”. Following this, the nine members of the former mayor’s group presented his candidacy for mayor against Frédéric Boccaletti who, unsurprisingly, received the 30 votes from his team, against 9 for his rival. Applause rang out in the assembly and in the audience.
“Emotion and gratitude”
Then the mayor spoke “with deep emotion and immense gratitude”, thanking the voters who placed their trust in his list. He then addressed his predecessor: “We can debate choices, priorities, methods, but we cannot deny the amount of energy, time, that represents three decades of service to a municipality. On behalf of the new municipal council, on behalf of the Six-Fourians, I want to take this opportunity to pay tribute to him for this long commitment, as well as to the elected officials who accompanied him.”
“A new page is turning, but the book of Six-Fours continues to be written, and it is written with everyone,” added Frédéric Boccaletti. And he continued, “I repeat, I will be the mayor of all Six-Fourians. No neighborhood, no generation, no citizen will be ignored. And I reach out to the opposition. We must be able to come together around the essentials: general interest, security, quality of life, the future of our children.”
After recalling his priorities, he concluded, with a tremor in his voice: “I promise to dedicate all my energy, all my time, all my experience, to serving our city and giving it the new impetus that you wanted.” Then the 14 deputy mayors were elected before Frédéric Boccaletti closed the session, inviting the elected officials and the public to go to the war memorial to lay a wreath “in tribute to those who have fallen for France, for our freedom, for our Republic.”
“The opposition files a motion”
At the end of the session, Jérémy Vidal asked for the floor to pay tribute to the action of Jean-Sébastien Vialatte and announce that “after reflection, thorough verifications, analysis of the law and facts,” the opposition group has “decided to file an electoral protest with the court” against last Sunday’s vote result. His statement was punctuated by boos from the audience, which the new mayor asked to stop. “We have identified serious means to bring the matter to the judge responsible for ensuring the proper conduct of the election,” added Jérémy Vidal. “I hear you,” responded Frédéric Boccaletti, “and I must admit that this is not a surprise. Humbly, I am pleased because we have observed serious incidents that occurred during this election. Your appeal will allow us to make them public.” For the record, the winner had only 21 votes ahead of his opponent.
