Paris (AFP)

Walker of the first hour, Benjamin Griveaux, 41 years, invested on Wednesday candidate of the Republic in march to the municipal in Paris, is an ambitious become unavoidable in Macronie, renowned for his ardor to defend the head of the State as for his side cleaving.

"It seems that he already wanted to be mayor of Paris at the age of 19," laughed a member of the majority. Initially, the one who graduated from Sciences Po and HEC - he missed the ENA, on the other hand - had nevertheless made his political weapons on his native land, in Saône-et-Loire.

This son of a notary and a mother lawyer had been elected councilor of Châlon-sur-Saône, then general councilor in 2008, under the presidency of Arnaud Montebourg, whereas it had gravitated as of 2003 in the strauss-kahnian circles, before participating in the DSK campaign at the 2006 primary.

"Benjamin Griveaux is my spiritual son," says former minister François Patriat, former PS formerly close to the former head of the IMF and spent at LREM. "I was in high school with his mother, I wanted to make my successor to the Region (Burgundy), but he was killed by the Orthodox Socialists," laments this unwavering support.

In the absence of the discreet charms of the provincial bourgeoisie, it is in the Parisian cabinet of the Socialist Minister of Health, Marisol Touraine, that the ambitious continued its ascent from 2012.

And, after a stint in 2014, by the communications and public affairs department of the commercial real estate group Unibail-Rodamco, his career has a turning point in 2015, when he is contacted by Ismael Emelien, then advisor to Emmanuel Macron, for the creation of the movement En Marche!

Because the small commando which surrounds the one who is then Minister of the Economy of François Hollande knows himself for a long time: Stanislas Guerini, Ismaël Emelien, Cédric O, Benjamin Griveaux ... all old "DSK boys", of which the Friendship was tied at the headquarters of their champion, located rue de la Planche in Paris.

By committing to Emmanuel Macron, Benjamin Griveaux makes himself indispensable in the campaign, coordinates the spokesman of the party and multiplies the television or radio passages, as much as he increases his notoriety.

- "A real trust" -

Meanwhile, he won the inauguration in the 5th district of Paris and is elected MP in June 2017, beating outgoing MP (PS) outgoing Seybah Dagoma, another former Street Planche. The dazzling success is completed by a nomination to the government, first as Secretary of State in Bercy and then as spokesperson, in November 2017.

His friends appreciate his cash side. He is "intelligent, clever", according to a minister; "measured, effective", according to another government egg; "a real confidence in the face of adversity," still praises the Secretary of State Gabriel Attal.

But the critics he wipes are at least as ardent: "devoured by ambition," a socialist who was close to him, when another pin his "arrogance" and ensures that "he has many enemies, not necessarily wrongly ".

This cleavage side will find an illustration during the crisis of the "yellow vests": on January 5, a handful of demonstrators break down with a construction machine the portal of his ministry, precipitating the evacuation of the spokesman through the gardens.

"I am told arrogant, breaking but never insincere," replies the person, who puts his image degraded in public opinion on the account of his passage to the spokesman of the government, including Benalla crises or "yellow vests".

Father of three children, this fan of the writer Brett Easton Ellis, American series and rock band Nirvana had never made a secret of his interest in the mayor of Paris, he who has long lived in the fifth arrondissement.

First faced with an avalanche of competing candidacies at LREM, the game of rallies had reduced the competition to a match against Cédric Villani, opponent who proved tough in the home stretch.

But, with a time in advance, Benjamin Griveaux had ensured the fidelity of the Paris LREM apparatus as much as that of a part of the government and of many Macronist deputies.

? 2019 AFP