Paris (AFP)
Calm, at home or at headquarters, with their campaign teams or alone: the seven candidates for mayor of Paris prepare Wednesday, a few hours before their first major debate, to try to convince voters and shake up the game.
The candidates want to take advantage of this highlight of the campaign, organized from 8.45pm by LCI, with 20 Minutes and RTL, to tackle the balance sheet of the outgoing PS mayor, Anne Hidalgo, on the level of debt (almost 6 billion euros), cleanliness, security, housing policy ...
Candidate for her succession, "Anne Hidalgo is serene, but she will respond to all attacks and especially all lies on her record," warns the president of his campaign structure "Paris in common", Jean-Louis Missika, questioned by AFP.
However, the team around the socialist "hopes that all the attacks will not be only for Anne Hidalgo", according to one of her close advisers, and that the outgoing mayor "will be able to speak on the merits".
His record will be attacked by the candidate LR Rachida Dati, who also wants to "tackle all subjects", according to its campaign manager, Nelly Garnier.
The stakes are high for the three candidates who race ahead in the polls: according to a Harris Interactive-Epoka survey released on Tuesday, Rachida Dati continues to progress (25%), ahead of Anne Hidalgo (24%) and the LREM Agnès Buzyn (17%). Then come the environmentalist David Belliard (11%) and the dismissed deputy of LREM Cédric Villani (8%) - both hardly having flirted with the 15% -. Finally, at the bottom of the table, the rebellious Danielle Simonnet (5%) and the candidate supported by the National Rally Serge Federbusch (4%).
- Role games -
Wednesday evening, each will take turns exposing, in a dialogue with David Pujadas, his vision of Paris, the meaning of his project, the big ideas that will structure his mandate.
A great debate will follow, the intervention of seven young Parisians, chosen by the newspaper 20 Minutes, to question the competitors, before the editorial of an RTL journalist. Finally, each contender for the mayor of Paris armchair can conclude in one minute.
The chosen themes have been grouped into three sets: cleanliness-development-security, ecology-mobility-health, economy-housing-budget-social-solidarity.
First to dive into the bath, Cédric Villani. Withdrawn at home, the mathematician "cut his phone since midnight (Tuesday) evening" to "distance himself and ensure serenity", says his campaign manager Baptiste Fournier. His message will be clear: "We must repair the Paris of 2020, and prepare that of 2030".
It is also at home that David Belliard "potash the programs of each other, before going to do some sport in the afternoon", reports its campaign director Hélène Bracon.
Agnès Buzyn, who replaced Benjamin Griveaux at short notice, is also "calm at home before joining the headquarters to prepare for the debate". "It's a day of work and rest," says campaign manager Paul Midy. Entering the last in the race, a month before the first round, the former Minister of Health wants to "show who she is and what she offers". "It is a new exercise," he concedes, "but Agnès was rather caught up in the preparations" notably with Pierre-Yves Bournazel, and the former first assistant of Anne Hidalgo, Bruno Julliard , according to RTL.
Same recipe among competitors: with Anne Hidalgo, "Jean-Louis Missika played the role of Agnes Buzyn, his campaign director Emmanuel Grégoire, that of Danielle Simonnet, and his environment assistant, that of David Belliard "blew AFP his entourage.
The rebellious Danielle Simonnet, she was still campaigning on the ground, Wednesday morning, to meet associations to sign the "Pact for the ecological transition". In the afternoon, she will recover "in (her) notes, proposals and arguments". "I want to humanize my project, this debate, and earn some points," she says.
© 2020 AFP