Paris (AFP)

In a party in search of candidates, the former Sarkozy minister Rachida Dati laid the groundwork for the presidential election by affirming in the British press his determination to "win" in 2022.

Asked by the daily The Times on its plans for the next two years, the ex-candidate LR for mayor of Paris replied laconically: "to win the presidential election of 2022", according to his words published in English.

Without making the part of the collective and the staff in this ambition, the former MEP detailed the workings: "When you do politics and you win electoral battles and you make sure that your cause advances, that you defend your values ​​and a community of destinies, necessarily there comes a time when you say to yourself, especially when you see the state of the country, this battle, maybe I could lead it ".

This interest in the presidential election is not new.

In the aftermath of the municipal elections, where she had given hope to the right by standing behind Anne Hidalgo (with 34% against 49% of the votes for her socialist opponent in the second round), the mayor of the 7th arrondissement of Paris had already claimed to have " a role to play "for 2022.

"It will be up to my political family to choose a candidate", she assured then, warning: "there is no man or woman providential".

It was the time when the Republicans placed all their hopes in François Baroin to represent them.

Since then doubts have appeared on the will of the mayor of Troyes to go to the presidential election and all eyes are on Xavier Bertrand, who has been showing his determination for several weeks.

Like her, the president of Hauts-de-France (who had come to support his campaign in Paris) claims to be a social and popular right.

At the beginning of September, Rachida Dati also estimated that Xavier Bertrand is "the one who is most hungry" ...

Unlike Rachida Dati however, Xavier Bertrand is no longer part of LR, which he left three years ago when Laurent Wauquiez was elected as his head.

In this return, Rachida Dati, 54, is also increasing attacks against Anne Hidalgo, "absent subscribers" on delinquency according to her.

She has repeatedly denounced favoritism and embezzlement of public funds in benefits that the town hall would have granted to the Unibail group, concessionaire of the Triangle Tower.

- "Casseroles" -

And Sunday, in a forum at the JDD online, she denounced the "compromises" of certain elected officials in the face of communitarianism, ensuring that in Paris "we discover that we have been funding for years associations that justify the attacks of 2015" ...

It is that Anne Hidalgo, who knew how to unite the left in Paris, could also play a role by 2022: "I will take all my part in the battle which is announced", she affirmed to the Point mid-September.

For their part, the Republicans will decide on their candidate in spring 2021, that is to say after the regional ones.

And even if the party leadership calls for focusing by then on substantive work, several right-wing tenors have started to make their mark, from Bruno Retailleau to Valérie Pécresse.

"Rachida Dati embodies something", estimates the number 3 of LR Aurélien Pradié, who warns, however: "be careful not to disconnect from the concerns of the French at a time of the economic and social crisis".

Others are worried, beyond the personality regularly considered divisive of the former minister, possible legal disputes: "Rachida Dati, it is not a pot, it is a real battery that she drags" , sighed in early September an elected LR.

As part of the investigation into Carlos Ghosn, a judicial investigation was opened last year by the courts on facts of "abuse of corporate assets" and "passive corruption" around consulting contracts entered into by the Renault-Nissan alliance with Rachida Dati and criminologist Alain Bauer.

"Maneuvers" and an attempt to "silence" it, said Rachida Dati, who denounces since the opening of this investigation a "manipulation".

© 2020 AFP