It has been ten days since the investiture of Jérôme Peyrat by the presidential majority for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19 has been annoying, in the 4th constituency of the Dordogne. This choice is far from unanimous, both among local activists of La République en Marche and among its competitors.

The mayor of La Roque-Gageac, who has spent a large part of his political career on the right, is close to Emmanuel Macron, of whom he was an adviser in 2019. After a preliminary investigation launched against him, he had resigned from his functions in January 2020 and was sentenced in September of the same year for domestic violence on his ex-partner by the Angoulême criminal court. Mr. Peyrat defends himself today by minimizing the scope of this conviction.

“Amazement”

The regional councilor of Nouvelle-Aquitaine assures that the slap he gave to his ex-companion – which caused a total temporary incapacity of fourteen days, according to Mediapart -, during a “dispute which became violent”, n was not voluntary. He informs Le Monde that his ex-companion has been “sentenced to a firm fine for malicious calls and messages” and deplores “the amalgamation” made by his critics between “his personal affair and the dramas of intra-family violence”.

But his investiture Saturday, May 7 by Together!, to the detriment of outgoing MP Jacqueline Dubois, does not pass among local activists. “If our outgoing deputy were to legitimately stand for re-election, many activists would support her and campaign alongside her, assuming the potential consequences of such a commitment”, warned the Périgord “walkers” of the local committees of Sarlat and Terrasson.

In a press release published on Sunday, May 15, they explain having learned “with amazement of the nomination awarded” by their party and having “not been contacted by the candidate” since. Finally, activists criticize Jérôme Peyrat for having been a candidate for the 2017 legislative elections under another color than La République en Marche, among the Republicans.

“Symbols that stain”

Left on the sidelines, Ms. Dubois took this announcement badly. “It’s a betrayal on the part of Mr. Peyrat, he assured me that the outgoing candidates were legitimate,” laments this 64-year-old retired teacher, convinced “that the party had validated his candidacy, but that the piloting was done above”. The MP says she has received many expressions of sympathy for a week, “I strongly consider the future”, she confides to Le Monde.

For the outgoing deputy, Mr. Peyrat “is a man of apparatus and cabinet”. “He is never present in local authorities”, unlike her, “very locally established” in her “large constituency”. Ms. Dubois nevertheless chose “not to attack the legal problems at all” of Mr. Peyrat, because “many are already taking care of it”.

Like Sébastien Peytavie, candidate of the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) in the 4th constituency of the Dordogne who says “to have been surprised to see Mr. Peyrat invested by the majority because Mr. Macron validated all the constituencies “. According to him, this criticized investiture “is the very symbol of the” at the same time Macronian “”. “On the one hand, the president makes the subject of the fight against violence against women the great cause of the quinquennium, and on the other he appoints a candidate convicted of domestic violence”, retorts Mr. Peytavie. The radical left candidate notes that “nothing legally prevents the candidacy of Mr. Peyrat, but that there are symbols that stain”.

“It’s true that this is the first time that someone condemned has come here”, analyzes Christian Teillac, various left candidate and dissident socialist. “It was to be an exemplary Republic and it is not at all,” laments Mr. Teillac. But it is the voters who will decide through their votes. »