He's already 15 minutes late.
François Baroin, not yet 28 years old, goes by car to Troyes (Aube) where he is to hold a meeting for his very first legislative election.
We are in March 1993. Philippe Séguin, figure of the RPR, made the trip to support him.
And stand in front of a crowded room.
The new candidate suddenly stops the Laguna, driven by his deputy, Gérard Menuel, at the sight of a “disailed partridge” on the side of the road.
"Wait, I'll see," says Baroin.
Too bad for Séguin.
Politics can wait.
27 years later, the one who is no longer the partridge of the year is still there, balancing political ambition and envy elsewhere.
The best hope of the right for 2022 continues to despair his camp by giving no clue about his possible presidential candidacy.
This Saturday, he alone leads a round table when LR returns to Port-Marly (Yvelines).
If he has to "talk about politics", promises his entourage, few executives are waiting for the white smoke.
Even less since Le Figaro ensures this Friday that he made his decision.
And that he will not go.
Contacted by Le Parisien, his closest entourage refuses to deny, without confirming.
And simply repeats: "He will make known his choice and the reasons for his choice in the planned timetable", initially in the fall.
This Friday evening, the tenors of the party, including those closest to the mayor (LR) of Troyes, were still in the dark.
"I don't know what François wants", cowardly one of his friends.
First lawyer of a Baroin candidacy, the boss of LR Christian Jacob refuses to believe in a package.
"Obviously, I always hope," he says, claiming that it is in any case "not the subject of the moment", and refers any Elyos issue to post-regional.
"I'm not sure I'm crazy enough"
The only certainty: the mayor of Troyes has been hesitating for months.
The reasons are as manifold as the conjectures about his fate within LR.
First element: his lack of desire, which he himself assumes.
"Not sure that I will say to myself, at the end, when I have finished counting my retirement points, that I will have missed my life if I am not President of the Republic", he blurted out on Europe 1 last November .
Presidential destiny, there are those who think about it when shaving and those who bear it.
At the same time external advisor to the investment bank Barclays, associate lawyer of Francis Szpiner, hunter-fisherman, François Baroin has a life, and a lifestyle, outside of politics.
This only represents "20 to 30%" of his time, he assessed in 2019. According to Mediapart, he would also be in advanced discussion to take over the general management of the Morgan-Stanley bank.
"I am not sure that I am sufficiently crazy" for the presidential race, he once confided to Olivier Girardin, vice-president (PS) of the intercommunality of Troyes.
Fiercely independent, he cherishes his freedom.
He is able to disappear for two days in the Creuse, where he bought a pond, without notifying anyone.
As for his family, "it is the key to everything", continues the local elected.
Wouldn't an Elyos adventure mean sacrificing his three children, and his mother, who lost her husband and daughter in the middle of the 1980s in less than a year?
"When we talk to him about the presidential election, his first response is
do I want to make those around me assume that?
», Reports Grégory Besson-Moreau, LREM deputy and ex-LR de l'Aube.
Attached to Troyes
At the Stations of the Cross for a presidential election, François Baroin could favor the Chemin de Troyes.
“He's a guy who really likes his city.
It's not chic, ”says Olivier Girardin.
The doubt is not only personal, it is also political.
Besides his Trojan roots, the good pupil Baroin does not like failure.
He has stood for election twelve times.
He has won twelve times.
The presidential election would be his thirteenth, not the easiest in a context where his political family is fighting to keep a space.
"I never go to an election to lose," he confided to the JDD a little over a year ago.
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"Baroin often says that it takes two jaws, one on the left and one on the right, to bring down Macron," says an LR executive.
For the moment, the polls are stubborn and do not promise him a victory with a shotgun.
"Disappointments do not kill and hopes are alive", tweeted, enigmatic, his companion Michèle Laroque, at the beginning of the summer.
