From our special correspondent in Châteaudun,
” What are you doing here ? “. It is 8 am this Thursday in Paris, the sky is slow to rise. Arnaud Montebourg is surprised to see us getting into the half-empty wagon at the Gare d’Austerlitz. Accompanied by a handful of faithful, the 2022 presidential candidate is campaigning by train. In TER * precisely, to reach these middle and popular classes that he considers “economically neglected and politically forgotten”.
A way to travel around France inexpensively, and a nice publicity stunt to showcase his project of “remounting the territories”. Moreover, the sequence in the wagon, the time of the journey, is dealt “exclusively” with another medium. Whatever, we find Arnaud Montebourg two hours later at the end of the rails: Châteaudun, Eure-et-Loir, charming town of 13,000 heads.
“A honey merchant?” Where ? A colleague… and he has good prices! “
“The train is convenient. We have time to talk, people are available, when they are not immersed in their sudoku, ”he smiles. “This France of the sub-prefectures is mine, I am a child of the territories, I was elected there for twenty years. I have kept a pride and an attachment ”, adds the former elected and socialist deputy of Saône-et-Loire. On the quay, Fabien Verdier, various left mayor of Châteaudun, welcomes him with a smile. Arnaud Montebourg refuses the car and goes back to the city center at a rapid pace.
The opportunity to enter the shops to greet potential voters. ” Hello ! Arnaud Montebourg, presidential candidate. Tell me a little, how is the business going? Your flirtatious, very Chiraquian handshake. The former Minister of the Economy and Productive Recovery of François Hollande is comfortable, but not always recognized. “We must tell the mayor to put light bulbs in the streets,” asks a passerby. “He is looking for money, like all mayors …”, replies the candidate.
On the market, a little further, Arnaud Montebourg is untenable. “A honey merchant?” Where… ? A colleague…, and he has good prices! He said, approaching. “A beekeeper at the Élysée, what do you say? We will go and have a good toast of honey ”. After four years away from politics, Arnaud Montebourg seems happy to find the proximity of a campaign. The 58-year-old entrepreneur boasts his new career in the business of honey, organic ice cream or almonds.
Another passer-by asks him about the soaring prices at the pump. “Have you tried carpooling? It’s difficult… we would have to invent an on-demand system… But luckily, you’ll get the Castex check! “, He quipped, defending a lower fuel tax. “Come, I present my project, we do not pay a drink but we make the neurons work”.
System D hints at a tough campaign
Around 11 am, Arnaud Montebourg begins his traditional “improvised forum”. A portable amplifier and a microphone wire, to show off his “remountada” program in a jesting fashion: general increase in wages with a 10% minimum wage increase, relocation of around sixty “critical products”, nationalization of highways, reestablishment of a compulsory national and military civil service, local police, hiring of doctors every 35 hours to fight against medical deserts, buyout by the State of abandoned houses to make them available to the most modest … territories… Do you have questions? A microphone will circulate ”.
“We have no other”, slips, embarrassed, a member of his team. We bring the amplifier closer, Montebourg himself tends the microphone.
This D system suggests a difficult campaign. His departure from the PS isolated him. Those around him when he travels by TER, around ten since September, are volunteers, like him. Renowned supporters are rare. “I am not paid to play politics, I have a job, it’s difficult to do both,” he blows, while his candidacy remains stuck in the polls at less than 5 %. “But it is also my strength, I am free. And my ideas on the Republic, the made in France, are the majority in the country ”.
But the presidential election is demanding, from a human and financial point of view. His entourage dreams of the abandonment of the candidate Anne Hidalgo to obtain some additional support and start the dynamic. After a meal in the company of elected officials and company bosses, Arnaud Montebourg visits the Châteaudun air base, which recently closed. The press is not invited and waits for him at a cafe. A couple takes advantage of the sun, evokes the difficult end of the month, the rise in the prices of “gasoline, gas, and even the baguette”. The woman laments the insecurity. On the billboards, a little further, posters of Marine Le Pen. We slip the name of Arnaud Montebourg, who must arrive in the company of mayor Fabien Verdier. She is surprised: “Who is that? I do not know him. But say hello to the mayor ”.
* Regional express transport