Agnes Buzyn announced her candidacy for mayor of Paris on Sunday. - : BUFKENS CEDRIC / SIPA

  • The now candidate Agnès Buzyn, who replaced Benjamin Griveaux, has four weeks to turn things around in the capital.
  • Behind the scenes, some note a "euphoric atmosphere" contrasting with the "gloom" which was gaining the troops already long before the affair of sexual videos.
  • "What happens to us is fabulous, as much as the episode of four days ago was tragic," we slip into the ranks of the LREM campaign, solicited by "20 Minutes".

For the moment, she has no agenda, field trips, meetings or speaking. Officially, the time has come to “restart” the En Marche machine around the new LREM candidate for Paris, Agnès Buzyn, one says in its ranks. The goal: "Change everything so that nothing changes." Behind the scenes, however, something seems transformed. “There is a euphoric atmosphere, an emulation. The HQ has once again become a hive. Some walkers are back and even people from Villani come knocking on the door, "exclaimed the campaign team, before conceding:" Honestly, I don't know if I could have gone to the end with Benjamin Griveaux. Today I live again. What is happening to us is fabulous, as much as the episode from four days ago was tragic. ”

The now candidate Agnès Buzyn, who replaced Benjamin Griveaux - forced Friday to give up after the broadcasting of intimate videos - to four weeks of campaign to reverse the vapor in the capital and avoid the wall which seemed to take shape a few weeks ago . Caught up in a dynamic (of self-persuasion?), Far from the gloomy speeches of recent times, some people believe it as hard as iron.

“There is a real breath of fresh air, a new campaign is starting. More than ever, we want to win. Win also to fight injustice, ”abounds with 20 Minutes , another Parisian walker, also remobilized, after the shock wave. For their part, the list leaders seem to be united behind their candidate, as evidenced by the publication of an official photo, in the Gangs of New York sauce. But what about the strategy and the program, less than a month before the first round?

The Dream Team @agnesbuzyn to change #Paris together in 2020! pic.twitter.com/XZMeUGZd55

- Paris with Agnès (@Parisensemble_) February 17, 2020

Abandonment of certain proposals on the side of the road

"I'm going to win," assured the AFP the former Minister of Health, who left the government Monday morning, to engage full time in this flash campaign, while that of Benjamin Griveaux , before he threw in the towel, began to seriously skate and many of the proposals were sometimes criticized even in his own camp. Monday evening, several sources indicated that the new candidate was renouncing flagship measures by Benjamin Griveaux: moving the Gare de l'Est to create a Parisian "Central park" and the contribution of 100,000 euros to enable the middle classes to buy an apartment. "His priority is the daily life of Parisians, very concrete projects", sums up one of the head of the district list. So the "disruptive strategy" branded Griveaux.

“After long days of turbulence which paralyzed us, it is off again. We are now embarking on a campaign with increased hope and new credibility. We are no longer in the strategy of the disruptive but of the practical-practice around security, cleanliness, the living environment, housing and emergency accommodation. Solidarity will also be a campaign focus, ”comments Eric Azière, head of the 14th list, with 20 Minutes . People, common sense, calm… So many words that suddenly find their way into the mouths of walkers.

"Agnes Buzyn has everything more than Benjamin Griveaux"

Despite the good feelings and the new desires, will the image of Agnès Buzyn, who will, according to BFM, head of the list in the 17th arrondissement, be going to print? Coming from civil society, "it arouses fewer epidermal judgments than Benjamin Griveaux", according to Frédéric Dabi, contacted by AFP, but it suffers from other handicaps: an "inexperience" in electoral campaigns and a very relative notoriety: 36 % of French people say they don't know it. But for walkers, it now represents the "new hope". "Undeniably, there is a new breath", continues Eric Azière. What about Benjamin Griveaux?

“It's a new approach made up of common sense and generosity, pragmatism and realism. She has a very strong social sensitivity, of humanism. It brings an additional soul and heart after these last days, ”details the elected official. A campaign executive drives the point home a little more, without warning. "It was not going at all. Agnes Buzyn has everything more than Benjamin Griveaux ”. Contacted by 20 Minutes , Agnès Buzyn's spokesperson, Marie-Laure Harel, analyzed the situation: “Agnès Buzyn arrives with the charisma of a prominent minister, very popular with humanity, sensitivity and accessibility. She takes the time for her teams and will take it for the Parisians ”. However, time is running out for those who are now betting on "appeasement".

The leitmotif of a “peaceful” city

"It is betting on a clean, secure and peaceful city," notes a Parisian walker. The word comes up very regularly in the troops. Agnès Buzyn is said to be “soothing” and wants a “peaceful” and “united” city. "At the same time ex-daughter-in-law of Simone Veil and on the initiative of the PMA for all, she speaks to progressives and she is a great bourgeois lady, she spans the East / West divide of the capital as much as the cleavage left-right ”, we sum up in the ranks. Marie-Laure Harel abounds: “She will bring kindness and appease a damaged city from every point of view. She embodies kindness and thoroughness better than anyone ”.

Finally, will she manage to bring back the former LREM Cédric Villani, who has always refused to join and even answer the phone calls from Benjamin Griveaux? She met on Monday with the mathematician, who posed "conditions" for "possible convergences", such as "opening a second round agreement with the Greens", as part of a "Coalition weather ". The socialists do not say they are worried and for the moment refer to Agnes Buzyn her non-Parisian roots and the fact that she did not want to introduce herself. “The pressure on her was such that she finally gave in. I am convinced that she was forced to run for mayor of Paris and that she didn't want to, ”said Jean-Louis Missika, co-campaign director of Anne Hidalgo, on BFM.

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  • municipal
  • Agnes Buzyn
  • Paris town hall
  • Paris
  • Benjamin griveaux
  • Anne Hidalgo