Edouard Philippe predicted Friday “a difficult election”, both “humanly” and “politically” in a tense social context, but affirmed that “we do not abdicate the honor of being a target”, at the launch of his municipal campaign in Le Havre. The Prime Minister stood before several hundred of his supporters massed in a small room in the Norman city. The ballot of March 15 and 22 will be "humanly difficult in the sense that I must make the distinction between the candidate that I am in Le Havre and the Prime Minister that I am all the time," he continued.
"And politically difficult because some will want to make this election a national test. Some may try to moderate the debate, or even prevent it, "he said, while outside sounded sounds of detonations and sirens from a few hundred demonstrators. "But all things considered, I decided to go," insisted Edouard Philippe.
"My only ambition"
Edouard Philippe, mayor of Le Havre from 2010 until his accession to Matignon in 2017, formalized his candidacy Friday morning as head of list in his home port, "the only city where I can consider running for universal suffrage" . "It is a choice that has been both matured and obvious at the same time," he argued. To explain it, Edouard Philippe underlined that "when we have a balance sheet, the least of things is to be at the rendezvous of the commitments that we have made".
And then, "we don't give up the honor of being a target," he insisted, paraphrasing Edmond Rostand's Cyrano. "Nobody would have understood that I am not the one who leads the list, takes stock and presents the project," he observed. If elected, Edouard Philippe repeated that he would cede the chair to the outgoing mayor (LR) Jean-Baptiste Gastinne, the time of his lease in Matignon.
"My only political ambition is to be mayor of Le Havre when this mission ends," he said. "I have known Prime Ministers who had other political ambitions, not me," he further promised, thus once again dismissing any inclination to stand in the presidential election of 2022.
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