Presidential: Anne Hidalgo proposes the organization of a primary of the left

"Let's organize a primary of the left, that come to participate in this primary the candidates who want to govern together", declared the mayor of Paris, guest at the last minute in the 8:00 p.m. news on TF1, while she is still struggling in the polls after three months of campaigning, confined between 3 and 7% of the voting intentions.

Four months before the ballot, she specified that she would maintain her candidacy if her appeal was not heard, as the first reactions from LFI and the PCF suggest.

"This fractured left, which despairs many of our fellow citizens must come together, come together to govern," insisted the candidate, who wants "a primary arbitrated by our fellow citizens".

Anne Hidalgo was not at all in favor of a primary in the PS a few months ago.

And again Wednesday morning, on France 2, she said that a union on the left "would not work" and "would be perceived as artificial" "because there are candidates who have been declared for a very long time".

But, in the evening, she made the observation of an exploded left where no less than seven candidates, if we retain only those who have a chance to gather the 500 sponsorships, are on the starting line: the Insubordinate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the ecologist Yannick Jadot, the communist Fabien Roussel, the champion of reindustrialisation Arnaud Montebourg, and the anti-capitalists Philippe Poutou and Nathalie Arthaud.

While these seven candidates gather less than 25% of the voting intentions, Anne Hidalgo, said to have "taken note of this situation".

"I know that if we do not make this gathering, there will be no possibility for this left to continue to exist in our country", she continued, while she had not wished, all like Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Yannick Jadot, participate in the popular primary, launched by a citizen movement with 210,000 participants.

But barely his declaration completed, rebellious and communists opposed a clear refusal to such a primary, while among environmentalists, we referred to a Thursday morning of the candidate Yannick Jadot to decide.

"Artificial union"

For LFI, deputy Eric Coquerel considered, interviewed by AFP, that the mayor of Paris proposed "the method that lost in 2017" when Benoît Hamon won the PS primary to fail 6% of the vote in the first round of the presidential election.

LFI deputy Eric Coquerel in November 2020 at the National Assembly in Paris THOMAS COEX AFP / Archives

"She is in a situation which forces her to avoid what the polls promise her," added Mr. Coquerel, judging that if "there is a demand for the widest possible union, it cannot be artificial, as if we were simply dealing with several gondola heads offering the same content ".

It is the "proposal of the last chance for her", mocked the deputy Insoumise Danièle Obono.

Clear refusal also from the Communist candidate Fabien Roussel.

"A primary only makes it possible to resolve a casting problem, but the problem of the left today is that it no longer speaks to the working classes. Fabien Roussel is a candidate and will remain so," assured his entourage at the AFP.

Alain JOCARD AFP

Even within the PS, some hardly believe in it.

Starting with the former president François Hollande who judged on BFMTV that "a candidacy of union only makes sense if all the candidates share the same proposals. However, we know that this is not the case".

But Olivier Faure, First Secretary of the PS, hailed "the courageous choice of a state woman who has a sense of the seriousness of the moment and the immense responsibility of those who carry the project of an ecological Republic and social ".

Arnaud Montebourg, also at the lowest in voting intentions, had made a similar call earlier on Wednesday to come together, "offering" his candidacy "to" a common project ".

Former Minister of the Economy Arnaud Montebourg, presidential candidate 2022, makes a speech in front of the "Reconstruire" forum, on October 20, 2021 in Belfort.

SEBASTIEN BOZON AFP

In the evening, on Franceinfo, he "welcomed" Ms. Hidalgo's "initiative", but called for first agreeing on "a common program", and stressed that he did not would not do a "head to head" primary, waiting for "those who are in the lead" of the left to decide.

© 2021 AFP