On the fourth day of her journey which should lead her again on Friday to Carpentras and Avignon, the socialist presidential candidate, who still stagnates between 5 and 7% of the voting intentions, behind the ecologist Yannick Jadot and the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon says he wants to "feed on what (him) say the French" to write his program, which should be made public in January.

Mulhouse, Besançon, Saint-Etienne, Chambéry, she has increased the number of trips throughout the week on the theme of "living from work".

"I meet a great energy", explains the candidate to the press.

"We are on mission lands of the left, where we have lost many deputies, senators, passed to En Marche".

But "we still retain local elected officials and resignation fades very quickly", she assures us, noting that there is "an expectation of a response from the left".

"This is the time to get involved. I am here to build a rallying force, not to know who will lead the leadership, to create a work-study program so that we find our values," said the candidate, in front of some 150 activists gathered in a room in Cognin, near Chambéry.

"Don't let go, I assure you there is a way to victory," she assured them.

"That's what we wanted to hear," whisper an activist to a friend.

François, a white-haired activist from Haute-Savoie, admits: it "gave him hope, and even envy".

"Do not let go" is also what the candidate said a little earlier, when she joined at nightfall the employees of Ferropem, a Savoyard factory threatened with closure, that the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot was already come to support in September.

The socialist presidential candidate, Anne Hidalgo, in the Bauges near Chambéry on November 25, 2021 with a young breeder and producer of Bauges tomes PHILIPPE DESMAZES AFP

Near a large fire pit lit in the courtyard of the factory, on strike for months, she recalled the working environment of her parents and her first job as a labor inspector.

"I am not here by chance", she said, considering as "industrial nonsense" the closure of this factory which manufactures silicon, a strategic element for the construction of photovoltaic panels.

"social misery"

"You are not all alone," she told them, promising to "amplify their voices", and calling for "an obligation to take over" the site, and "in the meantime, a temporary nationalization".

"Honestly, there are enough that we only talk about covid and immigration," said a trade unionist.

"We must talk about social misery".

Difficulties that Anne Hidalgo also mentioned in the Bauges massif, between Chambéry, Annecy and Alberville, with a young breeder and producer of tomes des Bauges, a local cheese.

"Economically, it's not easy," said the latter, who also complained that his profession is too often considered "polluters and subsidized".

"I do not come here to give lessons", explained the mayor of Paris, who sometimes suffers from an overly urban image, and wishes "to get out of clichés on farmers".

"I am part of a political family that does not think things are broken," she said, in comparison with her competitor EELV.

In the morning, she also spoke with elected mountain officials to discuss the future of winter sports resorts in a time of global warming, but also Lyon-Turin, which she supports.

"She is in contact with those who know, she is very receptive, it is an excellent approach", greeted Jean-Luc Boch, mayor of La Plagne and president of the National Association of mayors of mountain resorts, who no however, is "not on his political side".

© 2021 AFP