Europe 1 with AFP 3:23 p.m., February 16, 2022
After an internal vote, the Place Publique movement, co-founded by MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, will not support any left-wing presidential candidate, neither the socialist Anne Hidalgo nor Christiane Taubira.
The movement had however supported the candidacy of the mayor of Paris during the last municipal elections.
Place Publique, co-founded by MEP Raphaël Glucksmann, will not support any left-wing presidential candidate, a position taken after an internal vote, AFP learned on Wednesday from Jo Spiegel, also co-founder of the movement, confirming a information from France Inter.
"Public square will not support any candidate but individually everyone can support whoever they want," a member of the movement told AFP.
The latter "has been advocating the gathering for months, the crumbling of the left does not correspond to my (vision) of Public Square", he justified.
A decision wanted by the members
Party members voted electronically between Sunday and Tuesday evening.
The result: no candidacy will be supported, not even that of the socialist candidate and mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, whom Place publique had supported during the municipal elections in 2020.
In 2019, during the European elections, the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure and Anne Hidalgo had chosen Raphaël Glucksmann (Public Square) as head of the list of the Socialist Party.
"Today, they are thanked for it! This choice was a mistake, I had said it", lambasted Stéphane Le Foll, member of the PS, in a tweet.
In 2019 during the Europeans, @faureolivier and @Anne_Hidalgo had chosen @rglucks1@placepublique_ as the head of the @partisocialiste list.
Today they are very thankful!
This choice was a mistake I had said.
https://t.co/TlQ0qMTm9I
— Stéphane Le Foll (@SLeFoll) February 16, 2022
"A blow for Hidalgo and the Greens", says a member of the movement
"Some may see this as a blow for Hidalgo since the PS supported Glucksmann in the Europeans, but it is above all a blow for the Greens, with whom Place Publique was at the regional level and who had offered legislative positions for Place Publique", which the party has also claimed to have given up for "coherence", explained the member of the movement on condition of anonymity.
He finally highlighted the fact that the movement had "been approached by several parties" but "did not want to enter into a logic of bargaining", while for "many" of them, "what is at stake is is the continuation, the legislative ones".
Founded in 2018 by essayist Raphaël Glucksmann and former Socialist Party (PS) member Jo Spiegel, Place Publique is a "citizen political movement that intends to build a new social project so that social justice and ecological justice become inseparable". according to its website.