2026 municipal elections: a close friend of the LR mayor of Cagnes-sur-Mer joins Éric Ciotti, she is sanctioned

Carine Papy is changing creameries.

Finished Christian Estrosi: the Cagnes municipal councilor, elected since 2020 on the list of Louis Nègre, announces "officially" that her heart leans towards... Éric Ciotti . And at the same time, the one who is also vice-president of the Alpes-Maritimes departmental council reveals that she took her card from the UDR, the Union of the Right for the Republic, the party created at the end of August 2024 by the Côte d'Azur deputy now allied with the National Rally (RN). And it's not yesterday, she says, "I took it from the first day."

Estrosi metropolis targeted

"In recent years, the tax choices made in the Nice Côte d'Azur Metropolitan Area have had a direct impact on the daily lives of residents: increases in property tax, CFE [business property tax] , water prices, and a constant increase in costs for our families and businesses," argues Carine Papy. "In Cagnes-sur-Mer, we are seeing the consequences every day, with taxpayers paying more and more."

Carine Papy has therefore decided, now that Éric Ciotti is officially a candidate for mayor of Nice and for the presidency of the metropolis, "to take responsibility," she confides, "and to publicly support" the former leader of the Republicans (LR). Who, "embodies a path made of clarity, fiscal justice and real proximity to our communities," assures the elected representative from Cagnes. But be careful, warns Carine Papy: "I am not attacking Louis Nègre, he is a good manager." " I have not resigned, I remain in the majority," supports the municipal councilor in charge of local trade, crafts and employment.

Four running mates from the UDR majority?

Will she still be in 2026? "I'm not managing Louis Nègre's list," she dismisses with a wave of her hand, a little embarrassed. "My subject is not the municipal elections," adds Carine Papy. However, there is little chance that the outgoing president, in office since 1995, will bring back into his team elected officials who are UDR members, close to the RN and at war with... Estrosi.

According to our information, Carine Papy is not the only one to have donned the UDR jacket. Pierrette Alberici, the elected representative for the Cros district, does not hide her closeness to Éric Ciotti. Mystery and bubble gum, on the other hand, for the other two. But "at Éric Ciotti's New Year's greetings in January, two elected representatives from Cagnes, Paul Bensadoun and Marie Rofidal, were in the front row," says a source.

If Louis Nègre shuns these four municipal councilors for his future "45 winner," they can always find refuge on the UDR-RN list that will no doubt declare itself soon. "If I were to be a candidate, of course I would reach out to them," smiles Bryan Masson, the RN deputy for the ^6th constituency of the Alpes-Maritimes, who is rumored to want to take on the outgoing LR mayor. "He has been elected for thirty years, I have only known him as mayor. Many need and want change, new blood," continues the deputy.

Louis Nègre: "She will no longer be part of my majority"

"In all fairness, in all honor, I will withdraw her delegations and still in all fairness, I will withdraw her municipal councilor's allowance ," reacted Louis Nègre, contacted by Nice-Matin . "You can't be outside... and inside at the same time." The mayor, however, acknowledges a certain correctness to his former elected official: "There are those who betray and those who come and say it to my face. Carine Papy came to warn me, out of courtesy. She did things correctly."

So it's an amicable divorce, but a divorce nonetheless... " Attacking the Metropolis, attacking Christian Estrosi, supporting Éric Ciotti, and therefore also supporting Bryan Masson in Cagnes, therefore the RN, is crossing the red line: she will no longer be part of my majority, asserts the chief magistrate of Cagnes. For me, the values ​​of humanism are essential, I haven't changed in thirty years, I'm charting my own course, I'm uniting, I'm bringing together, in a majority with many different sensitivities around my party, LR" . Many sensitivities, but not "the extreme right" .