Nothing will have definitely gone as planned. Just six months after having been officially invested at the head of the list of the Republic on the march to municipal elections, here is Benjamin Griveaux forced to give up.
His campaign, after being marked by pitfalls, is seen to be stopped net by a final pitfall with the scent of scandal.
VIDEO. Benjamin Griveaux withdraws his candidacy for mayor of Paris
Everything seemed to have started well. On July 10, the former government spokesman and loyal to Emmanuel Macron was unanimously invested by the national investiture committee of the presidential party. He was then preferred to deputies Hugues Renson and Cédric Villani. The horizon seems a priori clear.
Insulting remarks
But the troubles start quickly. Very quickly. The very evening of his appointment, Cédric Villani, in the first place, left doubts about his possible support. Just a week later, Griveaux is caught up in his spirits: insulting remarks about his former competitors, described as "morons", "sons of p ***" are reported by the Point site. The politician reacts quickly, not to deny what is said, but to evoke a "private conversation". An admission that will force him to apologize publicly to his fellow walkers. Barely started, his campaign is already tainted. And he will no longer be able to get rid of an arrogant, antipathetic image.
Villani does not fade, Dati is ahead
Summer is passing, but the return to school does not carry better news. On September 5, Cédric Villani lifted the suspense and officially announced his candidacy for the municipal elections, as a dissident candidate. It's done: Benjamin Griveaux thought he would surf on the excellent Parisian scores of En Marche in the capital, he will have to run the countryside with a huge pebble in his shoe. Nobody seems able to stop the deputy mathematician, and while all eyes are on the Elysee, it's radio silence from Macron. A follower of Darwin's theory of natural selection, the president wants to let the competition decide. And the strongest win.
Placed in 2nd position in the polls behind Anne Hidalgo, Benjamin Griveaux stagnates until the fall ... before losing speed at the end of the year, overtaken by the candidate LR Rachida Dati. Hard blow.
Failure
Reversing a dynamic when there are only two months left in the campaign is a feat. He then tried a poker game, and released, on January 25, a theatrical proposal: moving the Gare de l'Est, replaced by a Parisian Central Park. The idea makes people talk. And is especially mocked on the networks, and by the other candidates. Another blow for the official candidate of En Marche.
Two days later - while Cédric Villani, finally received by Macron, ensures that he will go to the end, and with the support of deputy Renson - Benjamin Griveaux tries a strategy of appeasement, to split the armor by evoking his " carapace ”during its big campaign launch meeting in Bobino. Yet another blow to straighten out his campaign, as well as the curve of the polls.
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This Thursday morning, he presented his program in a cinema in the XVIIth arrondissement, to talk about security, cleanliness, seniors, culture, always hoping to hang up the vote of Parisians. Before the end clap on his campaign comes to impose itself definitively.
