He did not yet have a campaign platform and did not claim to know the city. Seeking a municipal elected office and unable to find one in the Paris region, Louis Sarkozy took refuge in Menton, a picturesque French Riviera port town on the Italian border, now tainted by a series of scandals. The setting is ideal for a parachuted candidate: In a landscape rocked by controversy, the son of former president Nicolas Sarkozy hopes to embody the promise of renewal. "I want to restore political and judicial calm in this city," he insisted on BFM-TV on Thursday, September 11. Whether he would run as the nominee for Les Républicains (LR, right-wing) or as an independent remained undecided, according to Paris Match, which featured him on its cover that same day.

It was not the first time the people of Menton heard such promises. During the special municipal election in 2022, triggered by the sudden death of Jean-Claude Guibal (right-wing independent), who had served as mayor since 1989, and the resignation of part of the city council, current mayor Yves Juhel (Les Républicains) had also pledged to "clean up" a "corrupt" system. Two aspects of the city seem to relentlessly lead its administrators before the courts: a local public company, or SPL, managing the ports with little transparency, and a certain flexibility when it comes to accounting, public contracts and the laws that govern them.

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