While the left met a second time this week in the run-up to the 2022 presidential election, Anne Hidalgo, not officially a candidate, continues her tour of France.

After Nancy or Douai, the mayor of Paris was visiting Montpellier on Tuesday.

A country-style tour.

REPORTAGE

Visiting Montpellier on Tuesday, a new stage of her Tour de France, Anne Hidalgo took the opportunity to stroll with the population, who gave her a rather warm welcome.

"It must change your mood," a baker, obviously delighted to see the mayor of Paris in front of her shop, points out.

Anne Hidalgo agrees: "It changes a lot of atmosphere!", She quips, far from the situation in the capital, where national policy is never very far.

It seems indeed that the Montpellier sun is chasing the Parisian clouds which float above Anne Hidalgo.

In the city of Occitanie, we ask for photos and we even encourage him to be a candidate.

"We are expecting you for 2022!", Launches a young man who crosses her path in the city center.

Unexpected encounters

Accompanied by the socialist mayor of Montpellier, Michaël Delafosse, she says she is touched by this type of questioning.

"It's always heartwarming because it's the youth who tell you that they are counting on you, so that's one of the most beautiful messages you can hear!", She smiles, before refocusing: "But here we are, we are working!"

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There, Anne Hidalgo insisted on her desire to be inspired by local initiatives.

As here, in Montpellier, when she goes to the site of a former refinery being decontaminated, at the heart of an urban development project, or when she goes to meet associative actors in a popular area.

An approach that is similar to a form of pre-campaign, with its share of unforeseen encounters.

Anne Hidalgo continues her Tour de France in and around Montpellier.

Here in Frontignan, socialist land @ Europe1pic.twitter.com / uo090hBaKC

- Hélène Terzian (@H_Terzian) May 25, 2021

Visiting the town of Frontignan, a few kilometers from Montpellier, a lady rushes to her: "Do you know when we met?" Asks Marie to the mayor of Paris.

"In Lyon, in the 1980s, I was an assessor," she tells Anne Hidalgo, who often recalls her years spent in the capital of the Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes region.

"How happy I am!", Continues the inhabitant, before slipping: "But Madame Pulvar, she says nonsense!"

"Overtaking"

Difficult for the mayor of Paris not to be caught up by the news, in particular the recent pass of arms between Audrey Pulvar, head of the socialist list in the Île-de-France region and the Minister of the Interior on the subject of the demonstration of the police, but also the last meetings to try to unite the left, which seems even more fractured.

"Everyone is trying to oppose us, to split," regrets Anne Hidalgo.

Speech by Anne Hidalgo and the mayor of Montpellier Michaël Delafosse place de la comédie @ Europe1pic.twitter.com / 6uZYa8rURi

- Hélène Terzian (@H_Terzian) May 25, 2021

The mayor recalls that his Tour de France and his Idées et Commun platform precisely aim to offer an alternative: "What we are doing also goes in the direction of this going beyond and this dialogue. It is an approach which could have its effectiveness there included in the construction of a national political offer ", she affirms. Anne Hidalgo wants to contribute to the debate but traces her path. Before, perhaps, to move up a gear, in the fall.