Paris (AFP)

The discreet Clémence Guetté was until then more accustomed to the stewardship of the group of Insoumis deputies and to the coordination of Jean-Luc Mélenchon's program.

At the age of 30, she took up the very different challenge of being at the top of the regional list in New Aquitaine.

The barometer of this development: his Twitter account.

The simple relay of events of La France insoumise are now interspersed with messages promoting its own regional campaign, in which the face of this militant in the shadows appears in broad daylight.

The contrast is striking between the troublemaker of the NPA Philippe Poutou who gives him his active support and the young woman with the wise face and the chosen dress style.

But in her own way, Clémence Guetté is seasoned, cumulating the hats of secretary general of the group of Insoumis deputies - a position that is generally reached towards the end of one's career, by her own admission - and of coordinator of Jean-Luc's presidential program. Mélenchon.

Positions that place her at the heart of the rebellious machine while not requiring contact with the media, which she is far from seeking.

"The public performance does not bother me, but I do not find any interest in frequenting the media either, the exercise is quite superficial", explains the candidate to AFP in her calm voice.

And if she comes to New Aquitaine, it is precisely, she confides, to find contact with the field, far from the Parisian games of the National Assembly.

At the Palais Bourbon, "there is the threat of gentrification: we have a good salary, we live in the 7th arrondissement ... Scrapping on rejection motions does not echo popular concerns".

- Sobriety and odd jobs -

Born March 15, 1991 in Bressuire (Deux-Sèvres), Clémence Guetté's childhood unfolds in a certain material sobriety, her mother an English teacher and her father at home, following a lifestyle in self-sufficiency in food.

Before joining Sciences Po Paris for a master's degree, Clémence Guetté did a bachelor's degree in literature and political science in Poitiers, financing her studies with a scholarship and a series of odd jobs (automobile factory, food industry, diving into a cafeteria, bank, etc. .).

She registered for the UNEF "without understanding that it is there an anti-chamber to return to the PS", which then frequents the "Poitiers gang" formed by Sacha Houlié, Aurélien Taché, Stéphane Séjourné, Guillaume Chiche and Pierre Person, future Macronist deputies.

She herself claims to be a more radical left.

She joined the Left Party in 2010, then was spotted by its leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon when she campaigned for the Movement for the 6th Republic, which moved to rebellious France in 2016. She then joined the presidential program team, where she studied with Charlotte Girard, a respected academic who has since left the movement, and to whom she succeeds.

"This is a sign of the collapse of human resources at LFI", privately lashes a former part of the movement, who believes that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, dropped by many historical supporters, is forced to appoint young people to positions of responsibility.

Clémence Guetté is as such one of the "many young robots-Mélenchon who recite" the chief's doxa, he plague.

Juliette Prados, press attaché for the group of deputies and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on the contrary praises the "multiple talents" of Clémence Guetté, from her organizational capacity to her intellectual robustness.

Behind a reserved facade, "she is accessible and friendly. But she's not a girl who absolutely wants us to know it", observes Juliette Prados.

Sacha Mokritzky, a young activist from the sovereignist wing who left LFI, still holds Clémence Guetté in high esteem.

He is grateful to him "for never having been involved in political blows, in shooting in the back".

He notes: "the risk of standing for election is precisely that she exposes herself and loses that quality".

© 2021 AFP