Le Port-Marly (France) (AFP)
The president of the Association of Mayors of France (AMF) François Baroin carefully sidestepped the question of his potential presidential candidacy on Saturday, as speculation intensifies on his willingness to represent the right or not in 2022.
"I'm not going to answer you," he said on the scene of the "youth meetings" organized by The Republicans for the start of the 2022 school year.
"We are recovering, we are the day after a great victory in the municipal elections, in the construction of a project that will help our representatives to consolidate Gérard Larcher's position by September" for the senatorial elections, he explained.
"I will not answer you because (...) we do not ignore what is happening in the country," said the mayor of Troyes.
"I have not met a person in Troyes or elsewhere" who "talks about the presidential election. We are talking about fear, back to school, businesses, the recovery plan, the future in three or six months but we are not yet talking about a presidential election, ”he added.
Mr. Baroin, who had assured in the spring that he would clarify his intentions "in the fall", assured that he would "not deviate" from this schedule.
"I will do it in due time, with responsibility, with the passion of the country" and "the will to do everything to be a factor of union and not of division" of his political family, he said.
Sole speaker of a round table on the theme "Republic and successes", he had previously questioned: "is success a success in life, or success in life? even succeed in life ".
Mr. Baroin, who has repeatedly said in the past his attachment to freedom at the risk of harboring doubts about his political determination, also praised "the freedom to be able to write his story the way we imagined it will be that is success ".
"Whatever history we have to live in the weeks, months and years to come, I will be by your side," he concluded, eliciting a standing ovation at the cry of "Baroin, Baroin!"
© 2020 AFP