Montebourg ended up having Hidalgo and Mélenchon on the phone without much success

Editing Le HuffPost – Twitter Arnaud Montebourg

POLICY – Some believed in a joke, it lasted all day Friday, December 10. Arnaud Montebourg, official candidate of the “Remontada de la France” has chosen to make phone calls to its competitors at left to try to convince them of a rally. A staging widely mocked on social networks and which has not really moved the political lines.

After falling on the answering machines of Fabien Roussel (PCF candidate), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (LFI candidate), Yannick Jadot (EELV) and Anne Hidalgo (PS) to whom he left voice messages punctuated by a very “friendship”. identifiable, the former Minister of Productive Recovery announced Friday, December 10 in the evening to have been able to contact two out of four.

“Jean-Luc Mélenchon said ‘no’”

“Summary of the telephone operations of the day, this morning Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the phone, a cordial interview of high quality, he said ‘no’, he will not do it, he thinks he can win alone. This evening Anne Hidalgo or it is the primary, or she will maintain her candidacy. Here we have a very small progress ”, reports the candidate who announced himself that he was ready to withdraw in case of union.

It is difficult to perceive what has “progressed” after this series of phone calls. From Anne Hidalgo’s turnaround on his choice to participate in a primary, Wednesday, December 8, the mayor of Paris was opposed to a clear end to receive from his competitors. “With this kind of comedy, you end up disgusting everyone”, criticized Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the press on December 9. The next day, he tapped on his Parisian balance sheet in a tweet: “To know what absurd blockages Hidalgo is capable of, just try to move around Paris”.

Anne Hidalgo’s first deputy, Emmanuel Grégoire, responded with a map of the Paris metro. Exchanges of enmities that do not advance any gathering. If the rebels do not intend to participate in the union, it is above all for programmatic reasons. They are in disagreement with Social Democracy, believe that François Hollande’s mandate has helped to drown the left and want to get out of European treaties, which is not on the Socialists’ program.

With two presidential campaigns behind him, the rebellious has the experience and is convinced that this time will be the good one by going to seek the abstainers. While he rarely passes the 10% mark in the polls, Arnaud Montebourg repeats that he “cannot win alone”.

As for Anne Hidalgo, she repeated over the phone, according to the candidate, what she had already said on the television news by TF1: she positions herself for the primary, but if no one participates she maintains her candidacy. No big surprise therefore for these phone calls which will have especially contributed to discredit a little more a candidate who has put all his camp to back with a proposal from the far right (which he has since withdrawn) consisting in taxing the remittances of immigrant workers to put pressure on the countries of origin to take back the illegal ones.

In fact, the situation on the left is known for a very long time. Last spring, Yannick Jadot, not yet nominated candidate for his camp, led the offensive and organized two meetings with all of the potential candidates or their representatives. Failure.

Jadot already designated by a primary

Since then, the one who was appointed after a open primary which brought together 122,000 voters does not intend to put its legitimacy into play during a new primary. It would indeed be difficult to assume vis-à-vis its electorate and the party authorities which have chosen this method of appointment and this strategy for the presidential election.

Yannick Jadot also withdrew from the 2017 race, in favor of Benoît Hamon – with the poor result that we know – and at the end of a primary within his party. He therefore does not want to repeat this error.

Especially since since, ecology has the wind in its sails and it can boast of having been the first left force in the Europeans of 2019 with 13% of the votes. In 2020, it is large cities that environmentalists have succeeded in winning, such as Lyon, Strasbourg or Poitiers. Despite the blunders of the newly elected, the candidate knows that there is an electoral base on these themes and therefore has no reason at this stage to change his strategy.

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