Philippe Chassaing turned 54 on Monday, 18 May, and used the occasion to set out where he stands on the new political landscape around Périgueux. The former LREM depute for the 1ere circonscription de la Dordogne said he hoped the new municipal administration would keep its promises, but added that he was skeptical about some of them.
On one point in particular, Chassaing was blunt. He said he was not a big supporter of 1-euro meals for nursery-school children and argued that social pricing was fairer. If that policy was the first move by the new team, he warned, it would not be the right direction. The remarks place him in a delicate position: close enough to the local debate to be heard, but not fully aligned with the direction the city is taking.
That balance matters because Chassaing is not speaking as a full-time politician looking for a comeback. He is now principal adjoint at the collège Arnaut-Daniel in Ribérac, where he said his job is to organize school life with families and teachers so that support for pupils is as effective as possible. He also said it was the end-of-year period and the time for the diplôme national du brevet, with continuous assessment accounting for 40% of the final grade this year and the final exam carrying more weight.
His intervention comes with another layer of political texture. Chassaing was a running mate on Antoine Audi’s list in Périgueux, but he said it was still too early to talk about ambitions to come. Asked about his future, he brushed the question aside. “C’est trop prématuré,” he said. For now, he insisted, he only wants to contribute to the debate of ideas.
That debate, for him, still runs through Élisabeth Borne. Chassaing said he was interested in her because she was extremely courageous and brought together ideas from the progressive left to the free right through her microparti, Bâtissons ensemble. He said he was still in contact with her, appreciated what she was doing and helped when he could by writing texts. “Je veux juste contribuer à ce débat d’idées,” he said.
There is one more detail that fits the picture of a man who still moves between political memory and current public life. Bernard Cazeau recommended the biography of De Tocqueville to Chassaing, and Chassaing had already received it in advance. It is a small aside, but it reflects the same posture he struck throughout the day: attentive, engaged, and unwilling to pretend the old political game has disappeared even as his daily work now belongs to a school in Ribérac.
For Périgueux, the significance is immediate. Chassaing is not promising a return, but he is not stepping back either. He is judging the new municipal administration on its opening choices, defending social pricing over a 1-euro meal policy, and keeping one eye on the national centrist debate through Borne. The next test is less about his own ambitions than about whether the city he is watching can turn commitments into action.
