Asked on LCI to find out if the PS could recover from the presidential election, where the polls give it only 2% of the voting intentions, Anne Hidalgo replied: "yes the PS will recover, because our ideas are ideas strong, republican ideas", and "if the left must one day return to responsibilities in the country, it is through this republican left".
The mayor of Paris also assured that in the presidential election, "everything is possible, including the fact that I am very much above" the results predicted by the polls.
But the candidate acknowledged that "the socialists lived five very difficult years, where we did not rebuild ourselves enough".
"That we have to open up, open the doors and windows, that we have to engage in more direct work with everyone in society, unions, associations, of course, and this work is ahead of us," he said. she admitted.
"I look at what happened in other European countries, often after the 2008 crisis, (where) the socialists or social democracy had collapsed," explained the candidate.
"Sometimes it takes time, it takes between 5 and 10 years to rebuild, we will try to speed up the tempo".
But "this left is present in all territories, the French have often elected it, in the municipalities, the regions", she underlined, assuring that France "is not condemned to have, election after election , a candidate one would have to vote for to avoid a far-right candidate".
"This left that I embody is the left of the balance of the country", and "if it no longer existed, the social and territorial fracture which is undermining our country and driving up populism, would be right for our country,” she warned.
© 2022 AFP