2026 Municipal Elections in Nice: Jean-Marc Governatori, the Ecology man in the center, is running again, but... alone

Who would have thought he wouldn't go? Who would have thought he wouldn't run in the municipal elections in Nice? Nobody!

What would an election in Nice be without Jean-Marc Governatori? It was an open secret, but now it's official: the man of environmentalism, neither left nor right, is launching a campaign.

At 66, the former Nice business leader, who has tried every possible election since 1997, is back at it again - without meat - but this time without EELV (Europe Ecology The Greens). At least, for the moment. "I'm not against an alliance with them," says Jean-Marc Governatori. But for that to happen, he adds, "Mélenchon and La France Insoumise will have to be out of the equation." In 2020, he headed the Green party list. Coming third in the second round, the Greens had put six elected officials in opposition. Since then, the Green party group has split. As a result, Jean-Marc Governatori sits alone, in the City and Metropolis elections.

"In 2020, I gave the keys to the bus to EELV"

"In 2020, I handed the bus over to EELV, which I don't regret, but we didn't work by territory. This time, that's what I'm going to do; it's very important to territorialize," says the co-president of Ecology at the Center.

For the moment, he has positioned delegates in nine "cantons." "Eventually, I want 50 correspondents, for the 50 districts of Nice," specifies the municipal and metropolitan elected official. And, as of September, they will be on the ground, he promises, armed with a questionnaire sent to all the people of Nice. "We will ask them what they liked and what they didn't like about Christian Estrosi," explains the candidate. He himself didn't like much.

"No, Estrosi is not eco-friendly"

"No, Estrosi is not an ecologist, he knows nothing about ecology," he says. Before listing "four major errors" by the mayor (Horizons, but who was still a member of Les Républicains in 2020). "Children don't eat organic food in the cafeterias, that's a serious mistake. The roofs of Nice aren't used, there are very few solar panels and no vegetable gardens, I want Nice to be one huge vegetable garden. And then, there aren't any recycling centers or resource centers in every neighborhood, even though it's all for profit. Finally, the tram is long, expensive, and messes everything up. I'm campaigning for articulated buses on dedicated lanes, which takes a maximum of 12 months to set up and is reversible; if it doesn't work, we remove it, unlike the tram," lists Jean-Marc Governatori.

And then, he whispers, "three terms of Christian Estrosi is enough." "We are not in Russia, it is an offense to democracy to maintain a lasting power," asserts the former candidate in the Green primary for the 2022 presidential election.

"It makes Patrick Allemand's stock rise."

Jean-Marc Governatori smiles. Certain that he will do more than play the fly in the ointment during this municipal election, he continues: "I am disrupting the three major political stables. Already, because of my candidacy, the head of the left-wing list will not be Green. They won't be able to, we would be in competition. As a result, it is driving up the stock market share of Patrick Allemand (Socialist Party) as head of the list ." As for Christian Estrosi, "he thought he only had two major competitors, the left and Ciotti. He will have three," the candidate for the Ecology in the center rejoices.