Paris (AFP)

Rachida Dati will be "the surprise" of the municipal, assured Tuesday the mayor of Troyes François Baroin during a campaign meeting of the candidate Les Républicains in the eleventh arrondissement of Paris.

"She can turn in the lead in the first round" and then "anything is possible," said Baroin, while Ms. Dati is given by several polls just behind the outgoing socialist mayor Anne Hidalgo.

"What it does is the start of a process of reconquest, listening and responsibility", he added, saying that "Paris is also a national issue" to "remind those who want to step over the ballot that their responsibility will be read in the ballot boxes ".

But "how do you cross a poll?" he asked himself, reproaching the executive for "contempt" and "cynicism".

The mayor of Troyes, whom some of his peers see as a possible right-wing candidate for the presidential election in 2022, returned to the "difficult times" that his political family has gone through since 2017.

"We have not gone far from the catastrophe, that is to say of the disappearance" and "some somewhat more fragile minds are gone". But "what has been happening for several months is the beginning of a reconstruction" and "for it to make sense we need a victory at the municipal level", he added, saying "confident" for the victory of the "extraordinary 2014 generation" elected at the last municipal elections.

Deploring the "progressive ultra-centralization" of the executive and its "lack of listening", he vilified the abolition of subsidized jobs and the drop in APL. "We are on the verge of two years ahead of a considerable housing crisis" for the populations directly concerned, he warned.

In addition to Mr. Baroin, deputies Annie Genevard and Eric Ciotti attended this meeting in support of the LR candidate of the eleventh arrondissement, Nelly Garnier, in a crowded cafe in the neighborhood.

Standing on a table, Ms. Dati said that these elections "will be the first step for future victories".

"We federated, I believe in it. But we must not let go. It is the last meters of the marathon runner, we are on a ridge path," she added, calling for mobilization because "l 'abstention will favor Mrs Hidalgo ".

"We have a dynamic, it will lead us to victory. We are determined, we will not let go and we will go to the end," she promised.

© 2020 AFP