Europe 1 with AFP 11:03 a.m., February 15, 2022

For Christiane Taubira, nothing is certain.

The PS candidate for the presidential election is struggling to collect her 500 sponsorships, after having failed in her attempt to rally the left after the "Popular Primary" held at the end of January.

A wind which turns and which pushed the Radical Left Party to withdraw from the campaign of the former Keeper of the Seals.

The "withdrawal" of the Radical Left Party from Christiane Taubira's campaign casts further doubt on the candidacy of the former Minister of Justice, who has not taken off since his appointment by the "Popular Primary" at the end of January .

It was only at the end of the press conference, revived by a journalist, that the president of the small party, Guillaume Lacroix, released a sentence with a heavy symbolic meaning, Monday afternoon: "the PRG is stepping back" of the campaign of the former Keeper of the Seals. 

A few minutes earlier, he had explained that the elected representatives of the PRG were "free to sponsor as they see fit", "without any pressure".

In other words: are no longer encouraged to sponsor Christiane Taubira who, herself, no longer has the party card.

Christiane Taubira fails to gather, the PRG withdraws

In a letter to his activists, Guillaume Lacroix justified this reversal by the fact that Christiane Taubira did not succeed in provoking the rallying of other candidates behind her: "The PRG's mandate was based on a process of rallying the left whose it is appropriate to record today that it is no longer possible".

In the evening, the Guyanese reacted in a series of tweets, describing "an incident at a crucial moment for the country".

"The parties have their life and their merits. They have their limits, their agenda is not mine," she insisted, assuring not to let go of "those who need justice and hope so much. , and that the ramblings on the left plunge into discouragement".

Still, the obstacle is significant for the candidate.

Most of the 47 sponsorships for the moment validated by the Constitutional Council come from the PRG - 35 - and the network of more than 300 elected members of the party represented a potential breeding ground.

Crossing the 500 signatures, within a divided left, was already shaping up to be tricky.

This would now be a feat.

"We are going to get sponsorships, but it's a bit short (sic)", reacted Léanie Buaillon, spokesperson for the "Collective Taubira for 2022".

"We are going to appeal to the mayors of France not to leave Christiane Taubira without the possibility of being a candidate on March 4", deadline to collect sesames, declared for his part Christian Paul, former socialist deputy and close to the candidate.

The former rebel sees behind this blow the hand of the Socialists, the historic allies of the PRG, and their candidate Anne Hidalgo: "It's impeachment (note: impediment), the Socialists are dragged into the precipice by a candidate who would do better to defend her program", denounced Christian Paul.

"Complicated"

The leader of the socialist senators and close to the mayor of Paris Patrick Kanner denied to AFP any maneuver from the West Indies where he accompanies Anne Hidalgo.

But he said he found that "a few major elected socialists who were interested in Christiane Taubira are coming back to Anne Hidalgo", without giving names.

The "Taubira Collective" will demonstrate in front of the Constitutional Council in the coming days to question it on this supposed blocking of sponsorships.

Patrick Kanner, he shrugged his shoulders: "It's a turn to the left of the campaign which was quite predictable: no party, no funding, no sponsorship. It's complicated to go very far again".

The campaign of Christiane Taubira has chained several disappointments.

First, the other left-wing candidates mocked his nomination to the popular Primary, which they had rejected from the start.

Then, the polls that could have created a rallying dynamic never took off.

And Anne Hidalgo maintained her candidacy, an unthought of support from Christiane Taubira because "when she is at 1.5%, the choice of her party should have been to interrupt her campaign", according to Christian Paul. 

Finally, the clumsy performance of Christiane Taubira before the Abbé Pierre foundation, at the beginning of February, maintained the unprepared trials of her competitors.

Is this the beginning of the end?

“We are not sure of being on the starting line on March 4”, concedes a source close to Christiane Taubira.

In the entourage of the ecologist Yannick Jadot, we have fun: "All that is the result of the internal divisions of the PS".