In Saint-Denis, Christiane Taubira raises the hope of her supporters and remains ambiguous about vaccine policy – archyde

“She’s coming, folks, she’s here, she’s the face! “ For the activists of the Taubira 2022 collective, installed on the forecourt of the town hall of Saint-Denis (Seine-Saint-Denis), this Saturday, December 18 has a special flavor. A year and a half that they hoped that their champion launches in the presidential race, and here she is in campaign. The day before, in her video where she evokes her possible candidacy, the former Minister of Justice had stressed the importance of the “Social cohesion everywhere, without exclusion or exclusion”. Something to seduce the Dyonisians, especially those who attended his stroll in the aisles of a Christmas market where journalists outnumbered customers.

Christiane Taubira has, not surprisingly, the sympathy of many inhabitants of this city. But by appearing alongside the socialist mayor Mathieu Hanotin, who delighted the city in 2020 from the Communists and has since led a policy far from winning unanimity among left-wing voters, especially in terms of “public tranquility”, she also sets foot in local quarrels. As an echo to all the differences that cross the left at the national level.

The feet in the divergences of the left

Among the inhabitants who came to meet him, some do not hesitate to speak ill of the mayor, others point out to the former minister that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is already a candidate. Many also rejoice and adorn the former minister with messianic qualities.

“What is playing today is a symbol, it is a wake-up call, estimates Amélie Gigot, of the feminist network La Collective des mothers isolées. What the United States experienced with the election of Obama, France has not yet achieved, it is paving this way. “ “On the left, who is the leader? Who is standing? There is a window that finally opens ”, wants to believe for his part Pédro Kouyaté, a musician from Lyon. His program? “We are waiting to see, recognizes Christelle, a teacher in Saint-Denis. But I trust him to take us to the field of ideas. ” Elisabeth Strauss, who came by chance to listen to him, despairs of the left: “All this risks being a sword in the water …”

In the middle of a forest of poles and stretched microphones, Christiane Taubira claims to have made a decision “Serious”, “Serious”, by launching his message of almost candidacy, while his competitors reproach him for his improvisation. As for the union of the left, “Popular Primary seems the last space where this union can be built”, she said, dispelling the vagueness that had hitherto surrounded the modalities of her unitary project. “I have already said several times the good I think of this democratic and generational process “, she adds. In the crowd, the Popular Primary activists are happy. “What she said was all we expected”one of them whispers.

Ambiguous on the vaccination pass

Surrounded by officials of the Left Radical Party (PRG), Christiane Taubira was also questioned about the vaccination pass, called to replace the health pass. In September, she refused to call on Guyanese to be vaccinated, saying then: ” I am [une] politician who is not in office and who, consequently, does not have the information which would allow him formally either to give an instruction, or to consider that in view of these elements of information (…) I hold a responsible statement. “ Suffice to say that it is expected on this subject this Saturday, the day after the announcements of the Prime Minister, Jean Castex.

In her response, the former minister maintains the ambiguity by avoiding declaring herself for or against, limiting herself to the “Respect” of the government’s decision. “I am confident in science, in medicine, she assures. When the government, in its role, in its place, under its responsibility, chooses to transform the health pass into a vaccination pass and does not choose compulsory vaccination, it must nevertheless ensure the public hospital services in terms of staff and reception capacity and care, which suit the political choices he makes. ”

Support for the conditional, like his candidacy. This trip to Saint-Denis, the first in a series, in any case launches the countdown to the month that the former minister gave herself to get her political family moving.