At Moulis, the mountains are used to echoes. This time, it is not the roaring of the deer or the rumbling of the Lez that make the valley vibrate, but the voice of a 19-year-old young man determined to shake things up.
For Geoffrey Priol, a journalist for the video department of La Dépêche du Midi, the report filmed this week in Moulis will remain as one of those encounters that surprise as much as they question. In front of the camera: Manolo Mlekuz, just 19 years old, with a frank gaze and assured demeanor. The young Ariège native announces his intention to launch into the next presidential campaign with his own party, named “Trajectoire”. A name that sounds like a promise of direction, almost a ridge line to follow without wavering.
In his report, Geoffrey Priol does not hide his astonishment. “At 19, we often talk about career orientation. He talks about country orientation,” he says with a touch of kindness. The setting, however, does not lie: rurality, mountains, scattered farms. A territory that has seen solid, sometimes rough commitments arise, but never such an early presidential ambition.
What struck the journalist was not so much the audacity as the determination. Manolo Mlekuz claims to have a structured project, a desire to “give a voice to the territories” and to inscribe his movement in a national dynamic. For Geoffrey Priol, the phenomenon goes beyond local anecdote. “There is something symptomatic about him: a generation that no longer wants to wait in the anteroom of power.”
The report highlights the budding, modest but active, support around this young candidate. On social networks, the announcement has already sparked debates and curiosity. In the cafés of Couserans, there are firm discussions: audacity or utopia? Vision or temerity? Another element noted by the journalist: the growing interest from national media. Several political talk shows are considering inviting the young founder of “Trajectoire” in the coming months.
Media exposure that could transform a local initiative into a true political phenomenon. In his final comment, the journalist rejects the notion of naivety. He prefers to talk about energy. At 19, one may not have a long political track record, but they can have a vision, a passion, an ideal.
At Moulis, the wind continues to descend from the peaks. Perhaps it will carry with it the first signs of a still nascent campaign. Or perhaps it will be the breath that will carry further than imagined this young contender to the Élysée. One thing is certain: for Geoffrey Priol, the report was not just an unusual subject. It was a portrait of a generation that, from the Pyrenees to television sets, aims to trace its own trajectory.
