The former head of state said he was "faithful and loyal, especially when it's difficult" when the socialist presidential candidate, Anne Hidalgo, is confined to around 2% of the voting intentions, below the 5% necessary to be reimbursed for campaign costs.

If he affirmed that Anne Hidalgo had "courage, tenacity" and that she "therefore" had his support, the former First Secretary of the PS spoke above all of the future and positioned himself: "What that it happens on April 10 and 24, an initiative will have to be taken the day after the ballot and before the legislative elections to rebuild the left of responsibilities", he said, assuring that he would take "all (his) part because that is the whole meaning of (his) life".

"It's up to us to be there the day after the election, when the country needs us. It's already tomorrow that we have to look, it's today that we have to prepare", warned the one who regularly criticizes the current leadership of the PS, accusing it of not having worked for the past five years.

"A set of forces, of personalities, must create a new organization that we will call movement or force, from the PS, other parties...", he then explained to journalists.

"A movement that would take up history but invent other ways of making politics. Something more open."

"He is looking for a method to have the best possible result in the legislative elections", analyzes Patrick Menucci, member of Anne Hidalgo's campaign team.

"The idea is to bring together via the most important personalities of the PS", he explains, quoting the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga, the former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve or Anne Hidalgo, "those who have the will, the determination to rebuild something".

The ex-president had let it be known on Tuesday, a few hours before the meeting, via his entourage, that he "did not rule out" presenting himself for the legislative elections in Corrèze.

Will he really go?

nobody knows it.

"Not even him," said a relative.

"The question is above all how the party will react. But you have to know if you want to live or die," judge Patrick Menucci.

"no support"

"The idea is that the socialists do not have broken morale" after the presidential election, considers Philippe Doucet, another member of the campaign team.

"We will see what François Hollande will deploy, but the 15 days between the 1st and the second round, will be active," he predicts.

Will the former president really be able to act?

"He is very isolated in the PS, he has almost no support," said a socialist executive.

"His strategy is that of the cuckoo clock, it is to settle on what is already proposed by others", he analyzes, stressing that Carole Delga, the former first secretary of the PS Jean-Christophe Cambadelis or Bernard Cazeneuve have already called for the creation of a new party or a new line.

"There, he has no + operationality +. His only card is the media impact given to him by the status of former president", criticizes this executive.

But his participation in the meeting was "a good thing for Anne Hidalgo", concedes the same source, especially since François Hollande had hitherto been little involved in the campaign.

“François Hollande said that we will have to take initiatives for the future, but that Anne Hidalgo must rise. He clearly called for Hidalgo to be voted for, it is a message sent to renegades, who cannot tell themselves to left and vote Macron", welcomes Senator Patrick Kanner, who had "the feeling that the militants left strong".

"In the votes it will go up, that's for sure. The socialists exist, they are not dead", moreover judged in Limoges Ghilaine Rousseau, a retiree who came to support the mayor of Paris.

"She can still grab, she has a good project," hoped Osiris Malbranque, an engineer from Mérignac.

Marina, from Dordogne, is more pessimistic: François Hollande "was ultimately a good president, it can only do good, but I don't think it will change much".

© 2022 AFP