Paris (AFP)
They have been talking about it for weeks: can the "Climate Coalition", called by David Belliard and notably proposed to the candidate Cédric Villani, shake up the game in Paris? With whom, and behind whom? On Wednesday evening, everyone in a meeting will try to advance their pawns.
The candidates now have until February 27 to agree, before the first round scheduled for March 15, or after, on this possible broadest possible alliance, always at the heart of the negotiations even if its contours remain unclear and the project final, uncertain.
David Belliard wants her to go from Cédric Villani to Danielle Simonnet (LFI), which the latter has already refused, without excluding outgoing socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.
But doubts persist, despite the decision of the medalist mathematician Fields not to "get close" to the official candidate Benjamin Griveaux, and the recent rallying of Isabelle Saporta, ex-journalist and private companion of Yannick Jadot, EELV MEP. Now excluded from the government, he still has to "clarify his position vis-à-vis the government", wishes David Belliard.
Although he was the chairman of its support committee in 2013, Cédric Villani did not spare his criticism of Anne Hidalgo, leaving it difficult to foresee a rapprochement with the outgoing mayor. Especially since his wish is to "cornify Hidalgo and Belliard", not to compose, according to a source close to "Paris en Commun", platform of support for the socialist mayor.
But rumors, fueled by some camps, persist: "Discussions with the Villani and Hidalgo camps continue", and "it seems more won than in December", when the idea of the coalition was launched, he said. in the entourage of David Belliard.
That nay, replies a source close to Anne Hidalgo questioned by AFP: "As much the rapprochement Villani and Belliard is on the right track, it is not the case for Hidalgo and Villani".
- "Ungovernable" -
Emmanuel Grégoire, however, did not reject the proposal, saying on Monday that it was not impossible to "explore collaborations with people from different backgrounds, that's fine". "But we add a condition compared to those of David Belliard concerning Cédric Villani, it is that the one who has the vocation to carry the coalition is the one who comes first in the first round". So the outgoing mayor.
According to an Odoxa-CGI poll at the end of January, Anne Hidalgo (23%) and Rachida Dati (20%) top the voting intentions in the first round, ahead of Benjamin Griveaux (16%), David Belliard (14.5%) and Cédric Villani (10%).
"Cédric Villani must answer the central question: who does he want to work with? He chooses and says", insists Emmanuel Grégoire. David Belliard "puts pressure on Cédric Villani and he is right, he will have to (...) get out of the ambiguity", even if the mathematician "took a very essential first step", in s away from LREM.
Some in Anne Hidalgo's entourage, however, question the advisability of such an alliance, fearing that such a heterogeneous majority would make Paris "ungovernable".
Because there is no lack of discord between the three camps: on housing, the Greens, the PS and the Villani camp do not share the same vision (the first are against construction, the second wants to continue, while the third returns the problem at Grand Paris). Ditto on the municipal police and its armament, or large urban projects like the ZAC Bercy-Charenton.
They find themselves however on the will to reduce the place of the car and to develop the use of the bicycle.
In the entourage of Cédric Villani who refuses to communicate on the progress of the discussions for a possible rapprochement, we note that "this coalition, the Parisians want it, but the parties prevent it".
However, according to this source, "it is not at a standstill. We only have to observe who will be in the front row of the meeting of David Belliard, and who will be in the front row of the meeting of Cédric Villani".
© 2020 AFP