France: Anne Hidalgo goes to the summer school of the PS, her eyes riveted on the presidential election
The mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, here at the Médef summer school, August 24, 2021 © Eric Piermont, AFP
Text by: RFI Follow
3 min
The Socialist Party's summer school begins Thursday August 26 in Blois.
And a subject will be at the center of all attention: the probable candidacy of Anne Hidalgo for the presidential election.
The mayor of Paris, who is going to the site on Friday, is eagerly awaited and will have to demonstrate her unifying abilities before officially launching into the race for the Élysée Palace.
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"
This is an important moment
," insists a member of Anne Hidalgo's team: the meeting in Blois should indeed allow
the future candidate to mobilize the Socialists
behind her.
However, the mayor of Paris has always kept her distance
from the party apparatus
.
This summer school will therefore be an opportunity to make the link with elected officials and activists, but also to appease the few protesters.
Among them, Stéphane Le Foll: the mayor of Le Mans recalls that the statutes of the party require for the moment
the organization of a primary
and he wants to participate.
"
A last stand
" of the faithful of former President Hollande, judges a socialist mayor close to Anne Hidalgo, who considers that they especially "
need to be pampered
".
Like the whole party, because it is the other issue of the Blois meetings: to determine the place of the PS
in the Hidalgo candidacy
.
The party emerged stronger from the regional elections, but the mayor of Paris prefers to present herself as a social-ecologist, outside the partisan logic, in which the French no longer recognize themselves.
"
A candidate of complexity
", smiles a socialist baron, but who has "
never denied us
", reassures a member of the party leadership.
►
To read also
:
Presidential 2022: are primaries inevitable on the left and on the right?
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