In the evening, the Minister of the Economy Bruno Le Maire came to bring "a little boost" to the Macronist minister, during a public meeting with a hundred people standing.
"There is determination, no panic", he assures, pounding Jean-Luc Mélenchon by calling on the abstainers to "move".
His Budget colleague Gabriel Attal should also lend a hand to Amélie de Montchalin on Friday.
Because the game looks very complicated: 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 remobilise.
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, where the reception is fluctuating.
A retiree who seems committed to her cause will "of course" go to 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 excesses, I totally assume", replies the minister, who will celebrate her 37th birthday on Sunday, the day of the second round...
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 exit on "the anarchists of extreme left" of the alliance Nupes.
"Going crazy"
In Massy, Jérôme Guedj, 50, tows in a popular market.
Even if he was first a candidate in Paris, before switching back to Essonne with Nupes, he fully plays the local stage card, takes Jacqueline in his arms: "We were at 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", confides the socialist.
He too calls for mobilization.
"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. .
Residents, rather old, come to greet him.
"Fully with him, we know him," says Mélina Aurror.
Amelie de Montchalin and Bruno Le Maire during a meeting in Palaiseau in Essonne, June 14, 2022 Alain JOCARD AFP
"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