In the evening, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire will come to support her to talk about purchasing power.

The place chosen is a coincidence, assures his team: the Place de la Victoire.

The game looks very complicated, however: the Minister of Ecological Transition finished the first round with 31.46% against 38.31% for Jérôme Guedj, a delay of 2,815 votes.

"It's difficult but not at all dead," wants to believe an LREM source.

It will be necessary to fill up on the carryover of LR votes (5.96%) and remobilize abstainers.

In case of defeat, Amélie de Montchalin will have to leave the government.

After the council of ministers "where we talked about the heat wave", she returned to the countryside in the opulent streets of Palaiseau.

A retiree who seems committed to her cause will of course vote and has warned her children "if you don't vote, no lunch".

A car window repairer warns: the minister's leaflet "I will make a paper plane for the little ones, I have the choice between nothing and nothing".

She insists on economic realism, tax cuts, the development of "electric cars" for ecology.

The HEC graduate tries to calm a former engineer furious at the closure of the Fessenheim power plant.

Emmanuel Macron promised six EPR reactors, she recalls.

Should it peel off its "techno" label?

"If techno means a precise woman who works on her files, perhaps with less bluster, scandals and outrages, I totally assume...", says the 36-year-old minister.

Amelie de Montchalin and Bruno Le Maire during a meeting in Palaiseau in Essonne, June 14, 2022 Alain JOCARD AFP

In 2017, this walker from the right had largely won the constituency against the UDI, while Mr. Guedj finished third.

"The atmosphere is not the same. There is the war in Ukraine, two years of Covid, inflation. People are tired, there is a desire for order and stability," he said. she enters two tracts, assuming her recent outing on the “far left anarchism” of the Nupes alliance.

"Going crazy"

In Massy, ​​Jérôme Guedj, 50, tows in a popular market.

Even if he was first a candidate in Paris for the PS, before turning to Essonne with Nupes, he fully plays the local stage card, takes Jacqueline in his arms: "We were at the 'school together'.

The former rebellious PS deputy and ex-president of the Essonne department grew up politically here, when Jean-Luc Mélenchon was elected in the department, before a falling out when the rebellious left the PS with a roar.

They end up with the Nupes.

"We met at the nomination convention, he told me + you see everything is possible +, but I no longer have a personal relationship with Jean-Luc", he confides.

He too plays the mobilization card thoroughly.

"It's a referendum for or against retirement at 65," considers the former student of Sciences-Po and ENA, also close to former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, despite their political differences.

Amelie de Montchalin and Bruno Le Maire during a meeting in Palaiseau in Essonne, June 14, 2022 Alain JOCARD AFP

Residents, rather old, come to greet him.

"Fully with him, we know him," says Mélina Aurror.

"He has a history here, but has been gone for a long time", considers the UDI mayor of Massy Nicolas Samsoen, support of Mrs. de Montchalin as "five of the six mayors of the district".

The city councilor criticizes the alliance with Mélenchon, "the unreasonable left".

Many will not vote.

Fishmonger Mouloud El Hamadni tore up his voter card.

"I'm freaking out. They don't represent us, they all think about their faces".

© 2022 AFP