Brussels, 28/06/2002 (Agence Europe) - Gérard Caudron, MEP, has just had to leave the PES group which now has only 175 members. In a press release, the French Socialist delegation, chaired by Pervenche Berès, consider that "by leaving the Socialist Party on the eve of presidential elections (Ed.: As we pointed out at the end of last year, Mr Caudron left the PS on 3 December 2001), to put himself forward against the Socialist Party candidate in the 2nd Nord constituency, Gérard Caudron excluded himself under the PES group's rules of procedure". The PS delegation calls on the group's president, Spanish national Enrique Baron, to inform the EP president that Mr Caudron and the three other MEPs who had joined the Republicans, Michel Dary, Michel Scarbonchi and Sami Naïr, are no longer members of the group. While, initially, they had envisaged the possibility of accession to the EDD Group, Mr Dary and Mr Scarbonchi are now examining the possibility of joining the ELDR Group. Mr Naïr could rally to the GUE/NGL Group. The French delegation, which comprised 22 members, will now only have 18 members.
Gérard Caudron is envisaging joining the GUE/NGL Group or that of the Greens/EFA. He will take a decision in September and remain among the non-attached in the meantime. Already victim of considerable harassment and exclusion in the Lille region, Mr Caudron expected this elimination process. The day after the legislative elections, when he backed down from the second round in favour of the PS candidate after coming in first in the town of Villeneuve d'Ascq with 28.5% of votes, and in third position over the whole of the constituency (18.5%), Mr Caudron, who was Mayor of Villeneuve d'Ascq during 24 years, was thus deprived of the office that he held at the town hall. It is the "PS crushing machine that has come into action to eliminate all those who said why we were going to lose the elections", he commented.