Paris (AFP)

First impact on the LREM group of the fratricidal struggle for municipal elections in Paris: MP Paula Forteza, support of dissident candidate Cédric Villani, announced Tuesday her decision to leave the movement and the majority group.

"I am Cédric Villani in his campaign for Paris. I am announcing today my departure from La République en Marche," announced the French MEP on RMC and BFMTV.

She explained her decision by "many reasons related to the bottom" but also "to the method, to the political strategy" of the movement, "locked, which rewards friendships more than skills", and follows "a dynamic of exclusion , shrinking, more than gathering ".

Designated by Cédric Villani as head of the list in the 19th arrondissement of Paris, the elected representative explained to AFP that she would initially sit among the non-registered. Without prejudging other departures, she believes that "there is room in the Assembly for an ecological and progressive group".

Urged on Sunday by Emmanuel Macron to "get closer" to Benjamin Griveaux, Cédric Villani declared divorce with LREM by "maintaining his candidacy freely". The executive committee of the movement should note on Wednesday evening that it is "no longer a member", according to the general delegate of En Marche Stanislas Guerini.

In a message to her colleagues "walkers" consulted by AFP and where she announces her "choice to leave" LREM, Paula Forteza stresses that everyone in the group "can measure the hardness of these last weeks".

She explains having hoped for "a social and ecological turning point", but regrets a "politicization of subjects that stir up divisions", as on immigration.

"Many departures have already expressed how our action does not measure up. Green-progressivism, which we are several colleagues to defend, is a credible and promising path", continues the deputy.

"We wanted to fight the devices: we have recreated one from scratch", also deplores Paula Forteza, who regrets about the pension reform that LREM has fallen "into the trap of demonstrating the balance of power".

This business leader, new to politics on her arrival in 2017, joins the dozen elected officials who have left the majority group since the start of the legislature, a figure to which are added several passages from full members to relatives, including three in January.

The last departure dates back to Monday. The deputy of Haute-Savoie Frédérique Lardet, who did not obtain the nomination in Annecy for the municipal ones announced that she left the movement while remaining related to the group. Gard deputy Annie Chapelier and northern elected Valérie Petit did the same during the month.

© 2020 AFP