“I don’t aspire to be interim anything…” – Mike Peyrefitte

Mike Peyrefitte

What about Mike Peyrefitte? Did the chairman also have his eyes on the provisional leadership of the U.D.P.?  Here’s how he answered that question.

Mike Peyrefitte, Chairman, U.D.P.

“I don’t aspire to be interim anything, I don’t expect to be interim anything. I am a senator, why would I be interim when I could run for leader come March twenty-seventh.  So, where people get that plan from… You see, I will say that when people start to mention those things, you make people can’t eat and can’t sleep, you know, you make some people fret just to mention leader and my name. But no, that was never the plan at all, and I doubt it came into anybody’s mind. It was very clear that when we met on Saturday, we suggested right away that with the party leader having resigned, the U.D.P. constitution not being very specific about it, that the natural next person to look at will be the first deputy and readily the honorable Hugo Patt said well it’s not the ideal thing that I would want to do but if the party wants me to serve as interim leader, then that’s what I would do. There was no issue.  Many people at the N.P.C., and I can say this much, were saying that that was the natural succession in the mean time.”