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Benjamin Griveaux (right), the LREM candidate at the municipal elections in Paris, with Gérald Darmanin, Minister of Action and Public Accounts. GEORGES GOBET / AFP

The first summer university of the Republic Marche has closed its doors in Bordeaux. Activists, parliamentarians and ministers spoke about the internal functioning but also the strategy of Emmanuel Macron's party for the next municipal elections of March 2020. The walkers also took the opportunity to show their support to Benjamin Griveaux, candidate invested for the Paris mayor , competed by the dissident Cédric Villani.

With our special correspondent in Bordeaux , Julien Chavanne

The staging was neat. To welcome Benjamin Griveaux, fifty activists gather a few meters from an entrance to this campus, chanting " Benjamin, Benjamin ". That's good, Stanislas Guerini, the leader of the party, or Mounir Mahjoubi, former supporters of Cédric Villani also passed by, not quite by chance.

New world but old strings of communication. Macronie closes the ranks around its official candidate. After a week marked by the dissent of Cédric Villani, En Marche wanted to show that there was only one real candidate walker.

Édouard Philippe is not a plan B

Even Edouard Philippe came out of the wood to deny a persistent rumor: no, it will not be plan B in Paris. " There is already an excellent candidate invested by La République en Marche, in Paris. His name is Benjamin Griveaux, he is there. "

Benjamin Griveaux is intelligent. He is determined, he is tenacious.

Édouard Philippe will not be a candidate in Paris 09/09/2019 - by Julien Chavanne Play

Édouard Philippe will also have played the game with another contestant contender. Thomas Cazenave, candidate invested in Bordeaux against the outgoing mayor, supported by the Modem and with whom the Prime Minister shared a drink on Saturday at sunset, near the cameras.

This strategy of LaREM creates tensions with its political allies including the Modem. On Sunday, François Bayrou, whom the Campus organizer forgot to announce on his arrival, had his face on bad days. At the tribune, visge closed, he warned the Walkers: " If we chose to turn the municipal election into a device election against apparatus, then we would be sure to lose ."

Macronie has left this Campus without having solved all its problems. The management of En Marche, it minimizes. " It's normal to be bickering sometimes, we stay spontaneous, we do not want a regiment, " assures an evening visitor Emmanuel Macron.