• It is in Clamecy, in the Nièvre, that Arnaud Montebourg, a time withdrawn from political life, must formalize his candidacy for the presidential election of 2022 this Saturday.

  • A supporter of "reindustrialisation", he wishes to embody "a synthesis between the right and the left which transcends the divisions" and support "the forgotten of globalization", according to his entourage.

  • In his camp, we exclude the possibility of a candidate for testimony.

    But on the left, where nobody really seems to take their candidacy seriously, we prefer to believe in a future alliance.

We thought the supporter of “made in France” now entirely dedicated to his beehives, almonds and organic ice cream since his departure from the PS in 2017. But Arnaud Montebourg, former Minister of the Economy and Productive Recovery under François Hollande, must officially announce his candidacy for the presidential election of 2022 this Saturday on his native land, in Clamecy, in the Nièvre.

In his entourage, it is assured that the former member of the PS is not there to apply for a testimony, and will know how to occupy an "empty space" between a Jean-Luc Mélenchon "who stagnates in the polls" and an Anne Hidalgo judged without a program, whose "policy is closer to that of Emmanuel Macron than to that of the Socialists".

A confused political line

Last June, weakened by a Covid-19 infection, Arnaud Montebourg told the

Parisian

not having "the personal and financial resources" to run for the Elysée. A little less than three months later, he comes back up like a clock, ready to do battle with any opponent. Including the president himself, on whom the former minister should "hit hard" this Saturday, according to his entourage. But which line does he want to embody? "That of a synthesis between the right and the left, which goes beyond the divisions and focuses on a French popular bloc concentrating the forgotten by globalization, the disadvantaged classes and the professions which no longer have the means to live in dignity", one of his relatives confides in us. However, in Macronism 2.0, there is no question of making the approach “sociological”.

But outside of his own camp, nobody seems to really believe in the candidacy of Arnaud Montebourg. “I like the character, but to campaign, you need activists, a strategy and sponsorships… But all that, he does not have it. The only thing he will express this Saturday are the reasons for his absence, ”points out the LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis Alexis Corbière. “Withdrawn from political life, he told us that everything we did (at LFI) was great,” continues the elected official. He is now coming back considering a merger with Xavier Bertrand… It all seems very confusing to me ”.

Each observing the limits of their former families, the unfortunate candidate for the PS primary in 2017 and the tenor of the right indeed think of a rally.

“Beyond the political differences, something is beyond us, it is France, it is the general interest, it is the capacity to oppose the steamroller of technostructure and well-thought.

For us, the politician decides.

We can rehabilitate politics in the face of fatalism, ”declared Xavier Bertrand in Le

Figaro

in January.

The PS does not believe in it, but spare the candidate for an alliance

With the Engagement, the political party he created last January, the former elected representative of Saône-et-Loire would already have 5,000 members, according to the party president, Valentin Przyluski, at Public Senate. “The work has been done for six months to allow Montebourg to be a candidate, to obtain his signatures and funding. And this work is more advanced than many consider it, ”he assured at the end of August. Thus, the collection of the 500 sponsorships necessary to stand for the presidential election does not seem to worry those around him: “In view of his experience and his career, we have them! And a signature does not necessarily equate with outright support ”.

If the side of the PS, we do not believe either in the ability of Arnaud Montebourg to lead a presidential campaign, both "structurally and financially", the camp of Anne Hidalgo spares its criticism.

“With this new candidacy, Montebourg is participating in the splitting up of the political offer, which is never good… But it carries the dimension of reindustrialisation, which we also want to embody.

So we wait to see.

A gathering can be done gradually ", confides a relative of the mayor of Paris, for whom the idea of ​​a union" between socialists, ecologists and communists (but not rebellious) "must remain a priority.

As long as you line up behind Anne Hidalgo, of course.

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