What had become a secret of Polichinelle is now official: Cédric Villani announced Wednesday, September 4, in a cafe in the 14th arrondissement, his dissident candidacy to the mayor of Paris. A decision that puts in trouble the official candidate of the Republic en march (LREM), Benjamin Griveaux, the presidential party and also, by extension, Emmanuel Macron.
"I announce you that I am candidate for the next municipal election of Paris 2020!" Said the mathematician, with a little emotion in his voice.
The announcement of Cédric Villani does not fall from the sky. His bodyguard, who had been at work for more than a year to prepare his candidacy for the LREM nomination, continued his work all summer after the decision of the National Commission of investiture (CNI) in early July. Composed of profiles broken up in electoral campaigns, especially in local elections, and people who participated in the creation of En marche in 2016, this team has spent the last weeks structuring its organization, raising funds and maintaining the link with the support of the famous mathematician.
On the organization chart side, the roles are distributed. Baptiste Fournier, former chief of staff to the mayor of Pré Saint-Gervais, in Seine-Saint-Denis, is a campaign director. He is surrounded by three spokespersons each with a specialty: Anne Lebreton, deputy mayor of the 4th arrondissement, will be in charge of social issues, the 13th arrondissement's LREM deputy Anne-Christine Lang will take care of the education issues, and the top official Rayan Nezzar, a spokesman for the presidential party, will have a role of political advisor and pen. Finally, the MEP from Maine-et-Loire Matthieu Orphelin, ex-LREM, environmentalist and close to Nicolas Hulot, and the French deputy abroad Paula Forteza, presented as a specialist in local political innovation, will hold a place important in the device. All this small world met Saturday, August 31 for a last day of work in common before the official announcement of Wednesday night.
"Whoever succeeds in gathering will be the one who will be elected"
The funding association created for the nomination contest was maintained and donations continued to flow. These come from simple Parisians, but also from various personalities from the world of research or culture. The team of Cédric Villani is however aware that the money will not be his strong point and that it will not be able to compete with the campaign of Benjamin Griveaux, who will have of all the machine LREM behind him. "We can do a lot of things that do not require money, wants to convince Rayan Nezzar, contacted by France 24. More than a leaflet, what matters is the dialogue, it's the interactions."
The team of Cédric Villani also set up a communication campaign to maintain the idea of a possible candidacy: interview granted to Paris Match mid-August, tribune of personalities of the civil society published in the Parisian at the end of August, letter Benjamin Griveaux made public in early September ... Nothing was left to chance.
The words of the 2010 winner of the Fields Medal (equivalent to the Nobel Prize in Mathematics) for his address at Café Gaité were also carefully selected. In front of dozens of people gathered for the event, he announced to want to "gather talents and wills" with "ecology at the heart".
"We will not say bad things about others because we really have the will to lead a positive campaign," says Rayan Nezzar, aware that the candidacy of Cédric Villani face Benjamin Griveaux creates a stir within The Republic on the move. "Whoever succeeds in gathering will be the one who will be elected," he adds, "so our goal will be to put ourselves in a position to gather the other candidates, and we will have to show that we have compatible views and visions."
The current MP for Essonne hopes to convince the candidates Pierre-Yves Bournazel, acting deputy of the 18th arrondissement, and Gaspard Gantzer, former communications advisor to President Hollande, to join him. Cédric Villani has met both of them in recent weeks. His entourage ensures that the three men share the same vision. He also spoke with David Belliard, the Parisian candidate of Ecologie-Les Verts.
No detailed program before January
"The specter of the candidacy Villani goes from political ecology to the progressive right, so all these people can meet, says Rayan Nezzar.Cedric Villani intends to be the first environmental mayor of Paris and respond to the anxiety of Parisians who have the impression of no longer being able to live in Paris, no longer being able to breathe and no longer being able to live in. The vision he is carrying intends to project Paris into the future. "
It will however be necessary to wait until January 2020 to know more about the concrete propositions of the mathematician. The latter intends to conduct a campaign similar to that of Emmanuel Macron in 2017, who had waited for the final stretch to unveil his program. His campaign team likes to draw a parallel between the two men, regularly presenting Cédric Villani as "a free man" who "took his risk" by embarking on the race.
It remains to be seen whether the "hold-up" succeeded in 2017 by the President of the Republic can be reissued in March 2020 in Paris. "Thousands of people are ready to campaign and in some districts, more than half of the local LREM committees are with us," says the candidate's entourage.
"Successful campaigns are those that combine experience, desire for renewal, and rooted support in civil society," says Rayan Nezzar, "and then there are three things to consider for a candidate: awareness, popularity, and intentions. Everything indicates that Cédric Villani has every chance. "
The mathematician is known by 80% of Parisians, according to his entourage, and enjoys indeed a large media area. An Ifop poll conducted in July also shows that a majority of Parisians have a good opinion of him, unlike his competitors: 51% of respondents said they had a favorable opinion of Cédric Villani, against only 41% for Anne Hidalgo and 38 % for Benjamin Griveaux. As for the voting intentions, the same study gave Cédric Villani the winner in the second round against Anne Hidalgo (51% -49%), while Benjamin Griveaux was given a loser against the outgoing Socialist mayor (49% -51%).