Lille (AFP)
Popular origins but also years in the European Parliament cultivating the art of consensus: candidate for the union of the left in Hauts-de-France, the ecologist Karima Delli emphasizes her atypical journey to find her place in the face of his ubiquitous rival Xavier Bertrand.
Used to appearing as an "anomaly" in the political arena by her modest social origins and her age, the candidate stands out today by being the only one to bring together for the regional socialists, ecologists, communists and rebels, a performance of which it is careful not to make a model on a national scale.
"I did not choose to be in politics, because politics was not made for me", assures this smiling brunette, who is often a good face less than his interlocutors.
Aged 42 and MEP for 12 years, the Northerner repeats like a mantra that she is committed to "changing people's lives", not out of personal ambition.
Marie-Christine Blandin as a mentor
Daughter of Algerian immigrants, whose father, a textile worker, could neither read nor write, Karima Delli grew up in Tourcoing, 9th in a family of 13 children.
Excellent way to practice the sharing economy, she emphasizes, professing that ecology primarily concerns the working classes.
Anxious to quickly earn a living, she began her studies with a BTS in commercial action before, pushed by professors, to continue in political science, until starting a thesis.
The writing of a university thesis on women in politics triggers a decisive meeting under the golds of the Senate, that of Marie-Christine Blandin, the first woman to have chaired a Regional Council, at the time Nord-Pas-de-Calais, where she becomes parliamentary assistant.
"His kindness opened all doors to him" remembers Ms. Blandin, evoking her attentions for everyone, ushers or restaurant staff.
Ms. Blandin also emphasizes its effectiveness during the intermittent crisis.
"With her youth, her outspokenness, her popular and direct side, she has done an incredible job of relational knitting. She has nerve but which does not upset, useful nerve. She always says to herself + we are going to try +" , summarizes his mentor.
Daniel Cohn-Bendit spots the young woman.
He appreciates the career and the agitator talents of the one who practices in "Black Thursday" and "Save the Rich", which she co-founded, a festive activism, disguised as a marquise or a pirate to denounce inequalities.
She was given the 4th position on the Europe Ecology list for Ile-de-France in the Europeans in 2009, a place a priori ineligible, but found herself propelled to Brussels when the party created a surprise by exceeding 20%.
In 2016, the youngest of the EELV primary, she embodies the left wing by proposing the taxation "up to 90%" of the richest and the reduction of working time to 32 hours per week.
In the European Parliament, where she was re-elected in 2014 and 2019, she co-chaired the committee of inquiry on dieselgate then took the chairmanship of the Committee on Transport and Tourism.
"I am not an ideologue"
"I am not an ideologue, I am not sectarian, in any of my files: I am here to discuss with everyone", she claims, underlining the "very conservative" tendencies of this commission.
In the countryside, during a visit to the Maxam Tan ammonia plant (Pas-de-Calais) undergoing compulsory liquidation, she takes careful notes, has numbers and names repeated to herself, offering a striking contrast with Xavier Bertrand a few weeks earlier in the same place, which took up all the space.
Her opponents like to portray her as a pawn of La France Insoumise, which would have inherited the head of the list to deprive the Communist Fabien Roussel of it.
"She lets slip an extreme speech, without nuance, of giver of lesson", attacks the right arm of Xavier Bertrand, Christophe Coulon, who finds to him "the same capacities of bad faith as the extreme right".
He slips that she "has never exercised any local executive responsibility".
Asked about her lack of notoriety and her lesser mastery of political communication than her rival, Marine Tondelier, elected ecologist at Hénin-Beaumont, retorts that Karima Delli "has a determination and a freshness that may make Xavier Bertrand out of date".
© 2021 AFP