It is a more than astonishing alliance. In view of the local elections in Trappes, former Socialist Party (PS) mayor Guy Malandain and his right-wing opponent Othman Nasrou of Valérie Pécresse’s Libres! movement have joined forces. Their aim: to dethrone the current mayor of Trappes, Ali Rabeh (Génération.s.), reports Le Monde on Thursday September 16. The municipal elections had been postponed to October 10 and 17. The Council of State had accused Ali Rabeh of campaigning between the two ballots, leading to the annulment of the election.
The right-wing mandate holder Othman Nasrou confirmed this alliance on his Twitter account. He wants to “bring together all those who want to help Trappes succeed”, but also those who want to ” change the tide of Ali Rabeh’s sectarian and clientelistic administration”. The vice-president of the Ile-de-France region also told Le Monde that the mayor of Trappes “has thrown the city into turmoil”. For him, “we are no longer fighting between the right-wing and the left-wing, but between the republic and clientelism”.
This link between the left-wing and the right-wing has, unsurprisingly, put Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the map. The leader of La France Insoumise spoke of a ” disaster “. On his Twitter account, he also called on the mayor of Paris and the presidential candidate to react: “In Trappes, the Socialist Party has allied with (Valérie) Pécresse against the mayor Ali Rabeh, member of the Génération.s. Anne Hidalgo must condemn this!
Since Didier Lemaire’s accusations, Ali Rabeh has been doing his best to improve the town’s image. As a reminder, Didier Lemaire, a philosophy teacher at La Plaine de Neauphle high-school, dared to denounce Islamist influence in Trappes on February 5. Under pressure and threats, he later announced that he would leave the national education system. He also had to be under police protection especially on his way to and from school. “The Islamists have won a battle in Trappes. It will take time to make them give up,” he announced to Le Figaro on February 19. Didier Lemaire also published a book on Thursday September 16 entitled: Lettre d’un hussard à la République.
