Paris (AFP)

Secretary of State for Gender Equality, Marlène Schiappa, believes that her party's candidate for mayor of Paris, Agnès Buzyn, will not win the capital in the second round on June 28, in text messages reported by Le Point and not denied.

"No one thinks that Agnes Buzyn will be elected mayor of Paris anymore," the minister, who is on the macronist list for the 14th arrondissement led by UDI Éric Azière, who was third in the first position, wrote to LREM activists on Friday. turn, in remarks reported by Le Point Friday evening.

"From there, I am not to lie to people and say + vote Buzyn + for her to be mayor of Paris, but to be very honest on the issues. We will probably have only one elected representative. Éric (Azière, editor's note). Or rather between zero and only one "elected, adds Ms. Schiappa.

"To tow the Porte de Vanves is to want to sell AirPods (headsets of the Apple brand, editor's note) to deaf people. Let's face it, this district does NOT vote for us. It is counterproductive to campaign there, "she says.

Without denying it, Marlène Schiappa estimated that there was "no interest in commenting on private remarks, distorted and taken out of context, which actually related to the campaign strategy", in an interview published online Saturday evening by The Parisian.

His entourage had previously also stressed to AFP that these were "bits of SMS truncated and out of context".

Agnès Buzyn's side, his entourage does not deny the words either but reports that Marlène Schiappa explained to him that it was a question of mobilizing the macronist electorate rather than convincing other voters.

"There is no problem with Marlène Schiappa who is someone very involved and very important who campaigns in the XIV", assures AFP Paul Midy, campaign director of Agnès Buzyn. For him these are "private words quoted out of context".

The team of Rachida Dati, who was on campaign Saturday morning, denounced on Twitter the "contempt" of Mrs. Schiappa towards "Parisians in working-class neighborhoods".

Anne Hidalgo came out on top in nine districts of Paris out of seventeen in the first round, and left strengthened in the second round given her alliance with environmentalists and the setbacks of La République en Marche.

© 2020 AFP