Presidential 2022: Anne Hidalgo tries to (re) relaunch her campaign – The HuffPost

via Associated Press

In Lille, Hidalgo (here in September 2021 in Paris) is trying to (re) relaunch his campaign

POLITICS – Lille of self-sacrifice? Anne Hidalgo is on the move in the stronghold of Martine Aubry, this Saturday, October 23, to receive the nomination of the Socialist Party in the race for the presidential election. A meeting presented by its supporters as the real launch of its campaign, the moment which must finally make it pierce.

And for good reason: the mayor of Paris has been skating in the polls since she announced her candidacy – and her intention to “change people’s lives” – in the middle of September, in Rouen, in Seine-Maritime. A speech, in short, on the docks, which did not allow him to print his mark. And these are not the different events organized this fall, like the vote of the militants to decide between Stéphane Le Foll, which allowed to create a dynamic.

In this context, tensions tend to increase in the ranks of the rose party. In public, some “elephants” find it more and more difficult to hide their embarrassment or their skepticism about the start of their colleague’s adventure. In private, the reviews are sometimes harsh.

“There is no start to the campaign”

“In fact, the campaign has not yet taken off”, recognizes a parliamentarian, quoted by AFP, but he notes that “the social is not enough in the debate”. For the moment, also notes François Hollande, “there is no beginning of the campaign” ofAnne Hidalgo, “It is in the coming weeks that there will be the affirmation of a project”, he hopes.

Despite this, the former President of the Republic explained, on France 5, that he would vote for the mayor of Paris, for the sake of loyalty. A commitment that Ségolène Royal was careful not to make. Guest of LCI’s morning show on Friday, the former presidential candidate (2007) indicated that she would make her choice at the beginning of January, when the situation will have settled somewhat between the various candidates on the left.

In addition to the defection of Stéphane Le Foll, the former Minister of Agriculture, who also appeared before the socialist activists, before explaining that he would not be campaigning for his colleague or the passage of François Lamy alongside the green candidate Yannick Jadot, even Olivier Faure sometimes has great difficulty in hiding his face on bad days.

Asked about the fact of knowing “why it does not work?”, Last Monday, on LCI, the first secretary did not particularly seek to kick in touch, drawing up, rather, the list of the grievances which one can make to his candidate. “She had made the choice, at first, to go and meet the French, without expressing any new proposals. So it’s true that people said to themselves: ‘She is a candidate, but what does she have to say?’ ”, He admitted, for example, insisting, a few seconds later:“ When I tell people about Anne Hidalgo, they know her, they know she is the mayor of Paris, but it doesn’t go any further. ”

Should we believe in this new phase?

A diplomatic language to say that the city council suffers from a certain deficit in opinion, but that we did not expect in the mouth of the boss of the Socialists. Never mind, Olivier Faure still wants to be confident for the future. “It starts” now, he hammered, still on LCI, “not worried” about the score of his champion who caps around 5% of voting intentions in the various surveys.

As you can see below in our poll compiler, it is left behind by Yannick Jadot and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, very far from the trio which is playing the qualification for the second round. A new chapter in the Coué method in politics?

In this delicate context, difficult, in any case, not to see this great socialist rally as the first of the last chances for Anne Hidalgo to stimulate a dynamic. To create hope around his project. Several heavyweights are announced, such as her mentor Martine Aubry (she was in her office at the end of the 90s), the local of the stage or the former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve who will help to compose an audience of a thousand people.

The mayor of Paris, who will make a speech at the end of the afternoon, should therefore once again defend her priorities, and endeavor to return to the bottom line: the ecological transition, but also the revaluation of salaries – to be raised. the critics – the particular situation of the middle and popular classes, health, the republican promise and school.

What to restore balm to the heart to those close to it? In appearance at least. “There was the time of Rouen, when she announced her candidacy” at the beginning of September, “an intimate and personal time”, analyzes a source quoted by AFP, “then a time of immersion in the country”. Now, “a new sequence opens, the time of the campaign”, we rejoice.

A stage for which the socialist militant force will be essential. But, as trouble often flies in squadrons, here too, things could be more complex than expected for a losing PS. As a symbol, according to The voice of the North, the Socialist Federation of the North, historic bastion of the left, which welcomes Anne Hidalgo this Saturday, now has only 132 activists up to date. That is 100 times a month than in the heyday.

See also on The HuffPost: Hollande must not “kärcheriser” the left according to Ségolène Royal

“There is no start to the campaign”

Should we believe in this new phase?

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