Struggling in the polls, which give her between 2% and 4% of voting intentions, Anne Hidalgo went on the offensive, facing "an incredible coalition (which) has come together to declare this election advance”, she explained in front of more than a thousand activists in Aubervilliers.
"They all got into it, to push us aside (...) and whistle the end of the match even before kick-off", she denounced, evoking "their dream" of an "election without socialists".
According to her, "to the vindictive chorus of the conservatives, the voices of a part of the left have joined, which claims to be fighting the right but above all dreams of the disappearance of social democracy", an accusation already made against the rebellious France of Jean-Luc Melenchon.
She recalled the major reforms carried out by the PS, from the abolition of the death penalty to 35 hours and the fifth week of leave, through "minimum income", marriage for all or even the agreement of Paris on the climate.
"So are we going to give in? (...) Are we going to let our France sink into the throes of an ever more violent liberalism with the middle classes and the working classes, with the youth, or sink into a deadly national-populism ?"
"Never," she shouted.
Without mentioning the popular primary, in which she refuses to participate, she recalled having called for an "honest, open, clear debate" with her left-wing competitors, but "they refused it".
"The page is turned, I will defend our project, the French will decide", she added, before assuring: "I am not afraid".
© 2022 AFP