“À Montpellier, une personne sur cinq vit dans un quartier populaire, on ne peut pas dire que la proportion soit respectée.” Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO
At France Insoumise, things are getting busy in Montpellier as part of the 2026 municipal elections. After MP Nathalie Oziol, it is now Rhany Slimane who is a candidate for the candidacy and to lead the troops. Explanation.
You are organizing the first meeting of working-class neighborhoods on Saturday, January 18, starting at 1:30 p.m., at the Saint-Martin estate, at your home since you live there. What does that consist of??
It is a national meeting system to bring forward concrete ideas put forward by and for residents. We have guests on several topics. For example, we have a round table with a provocative title on representation in politics: “Blacks, Arabs and the Left”. Or another on housing. It is open to everyone: the curious, associations and of course people from working-class neighborhoods. Another very important project will focus on secularism. We must make it loved and we are prevented from doing so by those, and in particular the mayor of Montpellier, who make it feared and hated by instrumentalizing and perverting it. For me, the mayor has positions that are not secular. When we are told that a candidate cannot run because she wears a veil, it is not true. An elected official can sit with a religious symbol except when he officiates at weddings for example, where the elected official must be neutral. This living together, when you grew up in a working-class neighborhood, you know what it is.
Saturday's meeting is a way of preparing for the 2026 municipal elections…
Yes and no. Ideas, since they are produced by those most concerned, will irrigate the debates. I want to be the guarantor that these ideas must be listened to and respected. With the ambition that the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods take power as much as other citizens. When we look at political assemblies, we cannot say that they resemble the city. A democracy that does not represent the people is heading for a brick wall. And currently, we are accelerating. In Montpellier, one person in five lives in a working-class neighborhood, we cannot say that the proportion is respected.
“A third of Montpellier residents live below the poverty line. Twice the national average.” Midi Libre – GIACOMO ITALIANO
You say that you want to be the guarantor that the ideas of the neighborhoods will be respected. This means that you will play a special role in the municipal elections?
I want to be one of the guarantors. And yes, I will present my candidacy in my movement to be co-leader for the municipal elections.
200% Deposit Bonus up to €3,000 180% First Deposit Bonus up to $20,000What does “co-leader” mean??
We have a clear process. The first step, before designating a list, will be the designation of two co-leaders who will co-organize the march forward. They will be designated by Montpellier activists.
Does this mean that we know the two co-leaders of LFI since MP Nathalie Oziol has also shown interest??
No, we don’t know them. Others may apply. The collective dimension is very important to me.
However, we have the impression that at LFI, you are playing your personal card. First Nathalie Oziol, who seems to have cut the grass from under your feet, then you…
I am very scrupulous about respecting political time. I am part of a collective framework, that is the most important thing. And not everyone has applied yet.
What is the current atmosphere at France Insoumise, internally? There is Nathalie Oziol and René Revol on one side and Alenka Doulain and you on the other side…
We are working. The goal is to bring people together and I am sure that it will succeed. The candidacy of Alenka Doulain who has embodied the mayor's opposition since the beginning of the mandate is legitimate. She hasn't said anything yet.
Aren't you afraid that this will give an impression of cacophony?
All the candidacies are legitimate. It is the activists who will decide. It shows a large and plural collective. Alenka Doulain's candidacy would be legitimate but the important thing is the collective character, as in 2020 with NousSommes. LFI's strategic orientation text for the municipal elections was voted on this Friday and it reaffirms the communalist character of its political approach. We want to put the municipality at the center of political organizations. This clashes with the vertical side of the organization of powers, embodied in particular by Michaël Delafosse.
Is Montpellier ready to appoint an LFI mayor? And what's more, a mayor from the neighborhoods and immigration?
These are two different things. Montpellier is ready to elect a municipal team that reconnects with its city and defends a program of rupture. For fifty years, it is the same political family that has been in place. It is a fact.
And a mayor from the neighborhoods, it will be possible in 2026 in Montpellier ?
This city has always welcomed people from very diverse origins. Since the Middle Ages, this city was one of the main crossroads of the Mediterranean. I hope that there are as many people as possible who come from working-class neighborhoods. And not just me. One person alone will not make a difference. The time has come to have leaders who resemble this city. I was in England and it is heartbreaking to see that there, it is not even a debate. I hope that this is the case here. It is our meritocratic path that must be retained.
What does the candidate to carry the voice of LFI for 2026 wish to highlight?
A third of Montpellier residents live below the poverty line. Twice as many as the national average. This is the heart of the fight. We need jobs. We need to socialize the tools of production. For example, Montpellier is invaded by advertising. We can imagine putting advertising under public management and that the money saved is reused to create jobs. Wherever there are large private groups, the money goes to shareholders. Here, there is a loss of public money. The municipal power must be able to act and generate jobs.
Culture is also important. I speak as a former dancer. Dance shaped me, emancipated me. It is doing very badly, even more so in Montpellier. It is not for nothing that we were not the European capital. We cannot continue to appoint our friends to the head of institutions. We need transparent, clear processes, it’s a question of integrity. Integrity is important. I was ashamed when I saw the police arrive at the city hall, I was ashamed for our city. I know that the people of Montpellier are very angry. In working-class neighborhoods, we know very well that there are special privileges. When Alenka Doulain asks for accounts for nights in Japan for €1,000 while I’m confronted with single women who can’t pay their rent, it makes me angry. We can’t go on like this.