Is this a big step for Anne Hidalgo towards a presidential candidacy or for the moment a simple way to make weigh his ideas in the debate for 2022? The mayor of Paris will gather on Monday in Villeurbanne elected officials from the left around the first “proposals” on the issues she considers priority: purchasing power, housing, health and ecological transition.
Galvanized by the results of the regional elections, where the PS kept the five regions it held, several hundred mayors and elected officials will therefore gather around Anne Hidalgo for this “day of work and exchanges”. In particular will be present: the socialist councilor of Montpellier Michael Delafosse, the PS mayor of Nantes Johanna Rolland, the head of the socialist deputies Valérie Rabault or the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga. The objective is to “lay the foundations for the construction of a project for France”, explains the mayor of Rouen Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol.
After launching in March its reflection platform “Ideas in common”, bringing together elected officials, experts and civil society, the aim is to “physically bring together” the French team of mayors and local elected officials “on which Anne Hidalgo has decided to ‘support the basis of its political approach,’ explains the mayor of Bourg-en-Bresse Jean-François Debat. He initiated the call with Senator Patrick Kanner, inviting Anne Hidalgo to launch into the presidential battle.
No candidacy Monday
On the menu of work, issues of health, work, wages, ecological transition and reindustrialisation, or even housing, “projects on which we have a duty of inventiveness”, explains Jean-François Debat. “This will also be an opportunity for Anne Hidalgo to clarify her vision” and her “social concerns”, for example on “the small salaries that she considers too low in France, in view of the cost of housing”, for her part PS spokesperson Gabrielle Siry Houari said on LCI on Saturday. Patrick Kanner warns on the other hand that “there will be no announcement on his candidacy on Monday, but announcements on the fact that we can manage the country differently, yes”.
Even if the polls credit Anne Hidalgo for the moment with less than 10% of the vote, this rally marks “a gradual but certain rise in power”, wants to believe Patrick Kanner. And while environmentalists, who will also present a presidential candidate, want to propose after their September primary to other left-wing forces to “support him”, supporters of Anne Hidalgo consider them that “the left can rally around of her ”. The mayor of Paris, who will be traveling all summer, is expected to announce her decision in September or October.