June 1995. The municipal elections sounded like a bolt from the blue in Orange (Vaucluse): Jacques Bompard, candidate of the National Front, was elected by a handful of votes. In the middle of rehearsals, Raymond Duffaut, the artistic director of the Chorégies d’Orange, the French international opera festival founded in 1869, says to the new councilor: “If you are elected to the presidency of the Chorégies (the association which manages the festival, Editor’s note), I present my resignation. » But, a few weeks later, Jacques Bompard failed to take the lead in the event. “The city was dispossessed of the Chorégies. It’s a political coup! », he protests in Le Monde.
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