Paris (AFP)

The new LREM candidate for municipal in Paris Agnès Buzyn accuses ex-walker Cédric Villani that she had on the phone Monday to pose a "power struggle" as part of a possible reconciliation of their candidacies before the 1st round , in an interview with Le Parisien.

"I extended my hand to him. But he laid down strict conditions: this is not how I work. I am not in the balance of power. And there, he posed a balance of power. .. ", observed Ms. Buzyn, noting however that there was no" tension "between them. "We appreciate each other, we respect each other," she said.

Tuesday morning, Cédric Villani was delighted on France 2 to have had a "cordial exchange" and "on the merits" with the new candidate LREM for whom he has "respect" and "esteem". The mathematician was excluded from LREM for having maintained his candidacy against Benjamin Griveaux, finally forced to withdraw from the race after the broadcast of intimate videos.

Monday, in a press release, the Villani team had set its conditions for a rapprochement with Ms. Buzyn: that in the program there are "major concessions on ecology, democracy, the metropolis: an investment plan of 5 billions for the climate, the enlargement of Paris ", and" the drawing of lots "of certain elected representatives among the population.

Agnès Buzyn also claims in Le Parisien that he wants to "appease" and "gather", considering that the former socialist mayor of the capital Bertrand Delanoë is in this respect his "model".

"I appreciated Chirac. I voted for Delanoë, who is my model of appeasement and sensitivity. Each in their style, they treated Paris well," she said. Former RPR president Jacques Chirac was mayor of Paris from 1977 to 1995 and Bertrand Delanoë from 2001 to 2014.

Claiming to be "and from the right, and from the left," she says that her "trademark is to appease, bring people together and gain buy-in". "My two competitors, Anne Hidalgo and Rachida Dati, each with their own style, are much more confrontational than I. They are more divisive," says Agnès Buzyn.

© 2020 AFP