The mayor of the Plaine-des-Palmistes was appointed departmental secretary by the far-right party, who struggles to an anchor on the island outside the presidential elections.
by Jérôme Talpin (Saint-Denis (Reunion), correspondent) and Nathalie Guibert
In Reunion, the National Rally (RN) finally holds its headliner. Regional councilor and mayor since 2020 of the small rural commune of the Plaine-des-Palmistes, 6,800 inhabitants, located in the heart of the island between two volcanic massifs, Johnny Payet, 58, certainly does not count among the big political figures local. But, for the first time here, the far -right party is represented by an elected representative a community. On December 16, 2022, this faithful of Marine Le Pen, whom he had received in his town hall a year earlier, during the day of the memories of the slave trade, slavery and their abolition, was appointed departmental secretary. “It was time”, judges Mr. Payet who, until that date, had “always supported the ideas of the RN” but had remained “without label”.
His roadmap? Restructure the Reunion Federation, whose reports have often been complicated with the national management, and extend its establishment. In the overseas, the party still has “an HR problem [Human Resources]”, agrees the European deputy André Rougé, in charge of the file at the National Bureau, for whom the priority is to “raise new figures to develop the ‘Local anchoring “. As mayor, Mr. Payet is, according to him, “a solid piece”. A profile of a good father, who succeeds dubious personalities, some of whom have been implicated in cases of embezzlement or sexual abuse. An elected official well installed in her stronghold, too. This man in the field comes from a poor town in the high of the island where the extreme right vote is the strongest.
After the Europeans of 2019 where the RN had come first, in this department as in all overseas communities, the party has undertaken to clean up in its ultramarine support. “We had original personalities, elders who dragged pots …, illustrates André Rougé. I started from scratch.” In 2022, “the electoral successes of the presidential election and the legislative elections aroused vocations, I saw arriving people out of nowhere, and it is now a question of putting the right people in the right places “.
The RN says it works for the summer on a “-program law” for overseas, based on concrete economic measures, such as tax exemption. In the meantime, the Lepéniste training is riding the rejection of Emmanuel Macron’s policy, strongly expressed by the new Ecological and Social People’s People’s Union (Nuts) on the left, ensuring in concert with it, faced with a presidential majority without anchoring: “The Ultramarines have the feeling of being second -class citizens. “
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