Paris (AFP)

Freshly invested by Republicans, Rachida Dati held Thursday her first public campaign meeting in a café in the twentieth arrondissement of Paris where she promised "rally" and "victory" to a hundred or so enthusiastic supporters.

"It all starts today," said Dati, in black trousers, at a café in a working-class district, crowded with supporters and journalists who came in large numbers to attend the launch of the former Minister of Justice campaign. of Nicolas Sarkozy.

"We have a duty, to wake up Paris" which is "dirty, asphyxiated, overwhelmed by delinquency" and is "no longer dream", she said, promising to go "to seek one by one the lovers of Paris "by the municipal elections of March 2020.

"We can not leave Paris in the hands of a few mediocre Paris deserves better than that," added, very applauded, the candidate who launched at the same time his campaign website.

Promising a "strong" campaign, "enthusiastic" with "a dynamic of gathering", Rachida Dati assured: "We will have no moods, there will be no sadness, small calculations ".

But "we will not be allowed to influence or intimidate, let alone negotiate," assured Ms. Dati who leaves with a lag behind the outgoing mayor Anne Hidalgo (PS), Benjamin Griveaux (LREM) and Cédric Villani (dissident LREM ), according to recent polls.

In this bistro near the Père Lachaise cemetery, the supporters arrived very early. Some by "curiosity and loyalty to Nicolas Sarkozy", like Sandy, 46, who left LR after the defeat of the former president in the 2012 presidential election.

"Regarding her personality, she does not give up, she goes to the end," said Samia, 43, who could join the party too.

At the end of his ten-minute speech, Rachida Dati lingered with the activists, exchanging a few words with one, embracing the other, in the compact crowd and the microphones of the many journalists.

"Good luck to your dreams!", Launched a man. "You have to be everywhere!" shouted another, while Rachida Dati, smiling, took the practice of selfies.

Jean-Didier, 73, member of LR, is aware that "we did not have an infinite choice" for the name of the candidate. "It would probably be easier for her in the 93 ...", he said.

© 2019 AFP