Paris (AFP)
He assures that it is "not an act of distrust": Cédric Villani, unfortunate candidate for the investiture for the municipal in Paris, must specify Wednesday night its "intentions", much to the chagrin of some "walkers" who do not doubt more than one dissident candidacy.
From a brewery in the 14th arrondissement, the mathematician rejected by the members of the National Commission of investiture of The Republic in motion in July, who preferred him Benjamin Griveaux, announce his decision to present himself or not, in front of a press expected in numbers and Parisians.
"These last months have not been simple ... neither for me, nor for you, I think ... In any case, I took the summer to mature my reflection," wrote Monday the mathematician and MP for the Essonne Benjamin Griveaux and Stanislas Guerini, head of the presidential party.
A concise message to decline the offer of the former government spokesman to "co-pilot" the campaign, in which Mr. Villani regrets that "these proposals do not dispel the discomfort I felt (... ) on the functioning of the nomination procedure ". For weeks, the MP and his entourage denounce indeed a process "stale", believing that the appointment of Mr. Griveaux, walker from the first hour and close to Mr. Guerini, was played in advance.
"But if it was so flawed, you should not go," says Mr. Griveaux in return.
"We are spoiling the campaign", but "we arrive at the outcome of a long-term strategy that we knew, even if we always called the rally", summarizes with AFP Pacôme Rupin, director campaign of Benjamin Griveaux.
"The pre-campaign helped to structure all this," including networking among "walkers," admits Baptiste Fournier, director of the internal campaign of Mr. Villani. Now, "we're not here to do figuration," he warned, after carefully orchestrating media interest in Fields' decision.
For Pacôme Rupin, the mathematician also "benefited from internal discontent, born after the adoption of the statutes of La République en Marche which did not leave more room for members". Hence the "idea of a primary", which he strongly supported.
- The summer to wait -
Result of the races: "It goes into balls", coward, more trivial, a Parisian elected "Macronie", which notes, bitter, that "all summer was suspended to the sentence of Villani, saying it would give his decision at the beginning of September ".
Brandi as a threat, article 30 of the party's statutes, which provides for an exclusion in case of dissent, will not necessarily be activated.
"It's not up to us to exclude it, but to know if it stays and if it is in line with the values we carry," says Benjamin Griveaux. "When you are a politician, you take responsibility and we are in the clear," he adds.
In LREM, "very few people thought it was going to end like that," agrees Pacôme Rupine. In July, party officials and supporters of Mr. Griveaux had little doubt of a rabibochage, like the boss of LREM deputies, Gilles Le Gendre, then convinced he "(had) to leave the time he is necessary for (the unfortunate candidates) to assemble ".
"I am intimately convinced that it can be rearranged," hammered again Tuesday Mr. Griveaux who refuses to "slam the door in his face", claiming to have rallied to his banner other unfortunate candidates (Mounir Mahjoubi, Hugues Renson).
For LREM, a single rider from Villani could also heighten the fear of a domino effect and a proliferation of dissident candidacies among disappointed marchers.
In Paris, the duel also has an impact on the Paris council, where pro-Griveaux and pro-Villani pro-Macronists meet. They are scattered in the groups PPCI (Parisians, progressive constructive and independent, right) and DP (Democratic and progressive, left), without prospect of fusion for the time.
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