Municipal elections in Bordeaux: I wanted something new for my city, assures Philippe Dessertine after his withdrawal

Unsuccessful candidate for the mayor of Bordeaux, economist Philippe Dessertine ultimately did not submit a list between the two rounds, after achieving 20.2% of the votes, thus leaving the field open to former Macronist minister Thomas Cazenave, who was able to get his revenge on Pierre Hurmic (The Greens) in the second round. Philippe Dessertine admitted to having received “a lot of friendly and unfriendly pressure for six months,” but ultimately decided – just hours before the deadline for submitting lists – that “the conditions were not right.”

“I would have liked to be mayor, but objectively I was not going to be”

Pierre Hurmic, the outgoing Green mayor, then lamented the “methods used” to obtain the withdrawal of the economist, citing an intervention from the Elysée and seeing it as “an implantation of the brutality of national political debate in Bordeaux.”

“I would have liked to be mayor, but objectively I was not going to be. From the moment I was not going to be mayor, I was not going to be mayor,” Philippe Dessertine soberly commented on Public Sénat. By withdrawing, did the candidate from the center-right wish for change in his city? “I wanted something new in my city, absolutely,” he replied.

The economist takes away an “extraordinary experience” that he “advises young people” on: “The voters send you a message, it’s wonderful. What I take from it is that democracy in France is incredibly alive and that citizens are saying that politics interests them. Now, I have returned to being a professor, everything is fine.”