From our journalist in Villeurbanne,
She used all formulas, sometimes the most worn out, to dodge questions about her presidential candidacy. “There is no individual adventure”, “the debate should not be captured by personal issues”, “the presidential election is not a beauty contest” … Monday, in Villeurbanne, however, everything resembled the launch of the Anne Hidalgo operation for 2022. By gathering her many supporters far from the capital, the mayor of Paris intends to accelerate in an attempt to take off, finally, in the race for the Elysee.
A tour de France to destroy her image as a Parisian
Anne Hidalgo is continuing here her Tour de France which began at the start of the year, and which has taken her to Montpellier, Le Havre, Rouen, Bordeaux, Nancy and even Douai. “This is the first stone of the building of a presidential pre-campaign. It is from the territories that we will find concrete answers to the daily life of the French ”, confides the mayor PS of Alfortville, Luc Carvounas, one of the 200 elected officials who pushed for a candidacy of the elected Parisian
in a column published at the end of June. On the stage, yesterday noon, the interested party highlights the elected officials at her side, such as the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga, or the mayors of Nantes and Montpellier Johanna Rolland and Michaël Delafosse.
“This team from France has been working for months. We have a message to bring about ecology, inequalities, and republican values, underlines Anne Hidalgo. We will pool our ideas to build a project that will move our country. By appearing alongside local elected officials, the almost candidate also hopes to destroy her image as a Parisian in public opinion, ten months before the presidential election. “Being mayor of Paris is no big deal, quite the contrary. We are not going to spoil our pleasure to have a credible candidate to govern the country. And I remind you that a mayor of Neuilly-sur-Seine has become President of the Republic, ”smiles Luc Carvounas, referring to Nicolas Sarkozy in 2007.
Break the pawn to the ecologists
If Anne Hidalgo is accelerating, it is also not to leave the field open to environmentalists, while the campaign for the primary organized by EELV and its allies officially began on Monday. “We are not in competition with the ecologists. But Anne Hidalgo embodies a personality that one imagines at the Elysee Palace, at the crossroads of this offer of gathering on social and ecology ”, slips David Assouline, socialist senator from Paris. Since the regional meetings in June, ecologists and socialists no longer have enough harsh words to castigate each other. And the staging
of a possible joint application last April seems a long way off today.
“Environmentalists are an emerging force, but when it comes to granting a mandate, regional and municipal governments have shown that socialists are given it, it’s a question of credibility. In the fall, we will have a project, an application, and we will set in motion, ”confirms Olivier Faure, the boss of the PS.
Take off in the polls
The euphoria of the day would almost make you forget the pitfalls that await Anne Hidalgo in the coming weeks. First, convince the grumbling François Hollande, Bernard Cazeneuve and Stéphane Le Foll in the lead, both absent on Monday. The latter, former Minister of Agriculture, does not stop calling to a PS primary in which he would see himself participating. “As far as I know, the PS has not decided to organize a primary and I strongly advise against it”, swept Anne Hidalgo during the day. The issue will be settled by a vote by activists in Congress on September 18 and 19.
The former labor inspector must also take off in the polls, while her candidacy has stagnated for months at 6 or 8%. “The polls, that does not impress him at all, replies David Assouline. Some also promised her defeat in the municipal elections in 2020, but when she is right, she goes for it and does not look back. “In Villeurbanne on Monday, even in a hurry by her camp, Anne Hidalgo however chose to take her time.