Paris (AFP)
"Arrogant", Benjamin Griveaux? Seven weeks before the municipal elections, the official candidate of LREM in Paris, at a meeting on Monday evening, seems to drag on a bad reputation in a city yet promised to walkers.
A few months ago, the capital seemed very winning for the presidential party, as there were boxes in the presidential 2017 - 34.9% for Emmanuel Macron in the first round - and again in May to the Europeans (32.9 %). The peculiarity of a local ballot does not foreshadow such significant scores at the municipal level in March. But all the same: see Benjamin Griveaux stuck in the polls, in third position behind the outgoing PS mayor Anne Hidalgo and the LR Rachida Dati, challenges even within the party.
The dissidence of the LREM deputy Cédric Villani, pointed in fifth place, is not unrelated to this underperformance. At the time of surveying a swanky market on the XVIIth arrondissement on Saturday, where he is at the top of the list, Benjamin Griveaux is challenged by all the inhabitants on this fratricidal struggle: "You only half convince me, Mr. Griveaux", tells him a retiree, "worried, because if you don't get along with Villani, you're dead".
Further on, Jean-François Simonnet, 58, is even harder: "This story of Cédric Villani is still a bit stupid". "Pass the message on to him," replied Mr. Griveaux, calmly. "I'll pass it to you too," replies his interlocutor. As you are so close to the polls, I don't know who should line up behind the other. "
For the detractors but also some close to Mr. Griveaux, the division is not however solely responsible for this start of the laborious campaign. They also point to the image, if not the character, of this early believer in Emmanuel Macron, a former government spokesperson, exposed to the point of being broken in the door of his ministry by a forklift at the height of the yellow vests crisis.
- Mayor or boyfriend? -
"Yes, in the field we are told about Villani and the personality of our candidate," recognizes AFP Olga Johnson, elected centrist of the 17th arrondissement and candidate at LREM. "But I say to people: + You want a mayor who manages Paris well or a friend?", She adds.
The 42-year-old ex-Strausskahnian knows his reputation and feels sorry for it. "It becomes ridiculous," he breathes, denouncing: "Each time, my name is written, comma + perceived as arrogant by Parisians +".
The revelations last summer about his remarks, kept in the private sphere and insulting towards some of his political friends, did not necessarily help to improve this negative image. There is "a problem with this candidate (Mr. Griveaux)", which Parisians find "arrogant", we repeat in the entourage of Cédric Villani.
"What is crazy is that people's perception (does not correspond) to the guy I know. He does not have the beginning of the beginning of arrogance", however swears a member of the government, who nevertheless agrees that Benjamin Griveaux "has his character".
A relative wants to put it into perspective: "Six months ago Benjamin, we hated him. Today, we say that he is solid, that we do not like him, but that he is not so unpleasant. Now there are two months left to make him love. " And for that, "he must show his true face".
First exercise, Monday evening. During his second meeting organized at the Bobino theater, Benjamin Griveaux, who likes to recall that "mayor" is an anagram of "to love", will unravel his first campaign proposals and strive to reunite his political family. By his side, several ministers are announced, including Secretary of State Marlène Schiappa, candidate on her list in the XIVth arrondissement.
"Benjamin bump, has a capacity to resist, does not allow himself to be destabilized. He is on the ground permanently", assures one of his spokesmen, the deputy LREM Olivia Grégoire. Others are more circumspect. "It doesn't print," laments a cadre of walkers.
© 2020 AFP