Paris (AFP)

The rupture is consummated: by opposing an end of inadmissibility to Emmanuel Macron who asked him to "get closer to Benjamin Griveaux", LREM candidate for mayor of Paris, Cédric Villani declared divorce with La République en Marche.

After more than an hour of interview with the Head of State on Sunday afternoon, the dissident candidate said he preferred "to remain faithful to Parisians", rather than playing "belonging to a political apparatus": " My campaign for Paris continues in complete independence, "he said when he left the Elysée Palace.

"The words are clear," reacted on Monday morning Stanislas Guerini, general delegate of En Marche: Cédric Villani breaks up with Emmanuel Macron and "I will ask my executive office on Wednesday evening to confirm the fact that (he) doesn ' is more a member of the Republic on the move, "he announced on Radio Classique.

After several months of parallel campaign of the two candidates from the ranks of LREM, many voices in the macronie were raised to wish that the Head of State intervened in favor of Benjamin Griveaux.

Cédric Villani, who is organizing a public meeting Monday evening at the same time as Benjamin Griveaux will hold his second meeting, preferred to break off on his own, to the chagrin of the presidential party. And this, at the risk of making even more difficult a victory in Paris, as evidenced by the last Odoxa-CGI poll for Le Figaro published on Sunday. It places Benjamin Griveaux in third position (16%), far behind Anne Hidalgo (23%) and Rachida Dati (20%), while Cédric Villani is placed fifth (10%), behind the environmentalist David Belliard (14.5 %).

Emmanuel Macron also risks leaving feathers there, after an episode that some relatives see as an affront. "This Sunday meeting at the Élysée Palace was not well played out for the President of the Republic, because it weakens it," noted a senior party official on Sunday, while a historic walker deplored a sequence that "only makes losers", candidate, LREM and head of state.

Cédric Villani "does not turn your back on the President of the Republic. It's like love stories: from time to time, there can be differences of point of view", relativizes the mathematician's campaign director, Baptiste Fournier, with AFP.

Before declaring, about the exclusion of the dissident candidate: "All these apparatchik maneuvers do not concern us; they are the bad habits of socialists".

- "Courage" and "convictions" -

Benjamin Griveaux assures him that his "door will always remain open" and that he will call Cédric Villani Monday afternoon to tell him.

But Cédric Villani is eyeing rather on the side of environmentalists and their idea that he considers "essential and central" of a "climate coalition" - which would go as far as rebellious France - carried by the candidate EELV David Belliard.

The latter welcomed Monday the end of refusal from Cédric Villani to Emmanuel Macron, but he considers that it is only "a step", and called on Public Senate to "a very clear program" around of the "values" that it carries.

Praising the "courageous step" and "the convictions" of Cédric Villani, Yannick Jadot, the leader of EELV, called France 2 MM. Villani and Belliard to "make a concrete offer" to Parisian voters, to "put content".

Journalist Isabelle Saporta, who recently left the campaign for candidate Gaspard Gantzer and who is Yannick Jadot's partner, also supported Cédric Villani.

"When you say + my main ally becomes the Greens + (...) that you want to build a German coalition, this project is not absurd, but on condition that you have forces, a movement behind you. It is the project of a party, not that of a single person, "said a close friend of Benjamin Griveaux.

However, for the executive and the majority, the episode is painful.

The Minister of Economy Bruno Le Maire said on franceinfo on Monday "to regret" the decision of Cédric Villani, "a gift we give to our political adversaries" and which "weakens us all collectively".

© 2020 AFP