Lille (AFP)

PS mayor of Lille Martine Aubry confirmed on Saturday during the Big Braderie, it would not announce its decision to seek a fourth term before "end of September", the candidate LREM calling for his part to "rally" after internal tensions.

Asked by journalists about when she would announce her candidacy, Ms. Aubry replied: "We said end of September, we stay at the end of September".

The former Minister of Labor, if she decided to represent herself, will have as opponents her former cabinet director Violette Spillebout, invested by LREM in July at the expense of the North MP Valerie Petit, and former Minister Marc-Philippe Daubresse , designated by The Republicans.

At the end of the afternoon, Mrs. Spillebout also inaugurated her local campaign in the presence of Stanislas Guerini, general delegate of LREM.

"We want to overcome the divisions, find concrete solutions for Lille and Lille (...)", she said, without commenting on the position of Valerie Petit who announced this week his refusal to support .

On this subject, Mr. Guerini said he rejected "the question of division". "I believe that a political formation that is reasoning through exclusion and division is always a weakening political formation.On the contrary, (our) movement must be that of the gathering," he told the press .

The position of Patrick Kanner, patron of PS senators and former chairman of the northern general council, should be further clarified after a meeting Tuesday with Martine Aubry, the first for five years between these two figures of the left.

"I'm going in a very constructive spirit, I think I can be useful in the collective fight," he told AFP, saying that his role "will be defined, including in relation to the decision that will take Martine Aubry, which has a legitimacy that I do not have ".

Aged 62, the former Minister of the City, Youth and Sports wishes "to help maintain this city on the left". According to him, Martine Aubry "needs to gather" before a campaign that looks "difficult".

In mid-August, Mr. Kanner had hinted in an interview with the Parisian that he did not exclude himself but would make his decision after meeting with Ms. Aubry.

On the side of La France Insoumise (LFI), the deputy of North Adrien Quatennens said Saturday that his decision was "taken", but that he would announce "in a few days to meet the schedule". "Our movement is not the business of one or more heads," he told activists at his party's booth.

© 2019 AFP