Another endless day when laptops sizzled a lot between France, Germany and the Maghreb. If he officially stands as far as possible from the quagmire in which his camp is plunged in Paris since the explosion in flight of Benjamin Griveaux, the president took care of grain Saturday from Munich (Germany), where he participated in a conference on Security. He did not hesitate to accuse Russia of "continuing to destabilize" the elections in the West, as he himself experienced in 2017.
It was to the boss of La République en Marche Stanislas Guerini, and to his special advisor to the Elysée Philippe Grangeon, who left for a few days in Morocco, that Emmanuel Macron entrusted the delicate mission - impossible? - to find the suitable candidate to save the honor. Very close to the president, government spokesperson Sibeth Ndiaye is also on the move. Objective: achieve “Monday at the latest”. Just one month away from the municipal elections, the countdown has started.
VIDEO. Benjamin Griveaux's infernal municipal campaign
At the end of the afternoon, this Saturday, Piotr Pavlenski, the Russian artist at the origin of the diffusion of the sexual videos which led Griveaux to throw in the towel, was arrested and placed in police custody in as part of another case. Griveaux for its part filed a complaint for "invasion of privacy" and an investigation was opened.
Buzyn and Blanquer stand out
In the morning, yet another crisis meeting was held at LREM headquarters. Around the table, the thinking and poster heads of the Paris campaign: "Stan" Guerini and his right arm Pierre Person, the Secretaries of State Marlène Schiappa (Equality between women and men) and Agnès Pannier-Runacher (Economy), the co-chairman of the nomination committee Alain Richard, the centrist Marielle de Sarnez - who will not be running again in Paris -, the head of the list Delphine Bürkli, Florence Berthout or Pierre-Yves Bournazel, or the executives of the Griveaux campaign , gone to go green.
"What came out of it is almost unanimity on the need to have a strong personality, national in scope, which is on an equal footing with Anne Hidalgo and Rachida Dati and can create an electric shock," said one participant. Two names stood out from the crowd: the ministers Agnès Buzyn (Health) and Jean-Michel Blanquer (Education).
“A doctor for a palliative care campaign, not bad! Quips a macronist. Behind the scenes, MoDem boss François Bayrou has been pushing the Buzyn option since October and playing the middleman. "It can capture the disappointed Hidalgo on the left with its social side and has a reassuring side for the right", boasts a Parisian elected official.
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And the interested party, then? Tempted by the electoral adventure - "Paris is my city", she often says - she had considered applying for the Griveaux lists in the 6th arrondissement, but refused to go to the 15th. No question, for her who carried the PMA, to appear with the outgoing mayor LR Philippe Goujon, opponent of gay marriage. So go and save a sinking ship ... "She's going to crash and have nothing but knocks to take. And she is fully committed to the coronavirus, ”observes a LREM source. But if Macron asked her, she would sacrifice herself. Reportedly, the president may call him in person.
"It must not end like Nathalie Loiseau"
This option, however, is far from reassuring at the top of the state. "Buzyn will not be able to campaign. Each time she goes out, she will have the hospital on her back! Warns a regular at the Elysée Palace. “She is not very political. It should not end like Nathalie Loiseau ... "whose candidacy for the Europeans had turned into a nightmare, worries another prominent Walker, who recalls that the Minister of Health has never led a campaign. "Be careful", invites Macron's entourage, who especially does not want to get too involved in this dark affair.
Another major mortgage weighs on the macronist campaign in the capital: Cédric Villani. LREM especially does not want to leave with two candidates who compete. Saturday afternoon, Guerini discreetly met the dissident, freshly excluded from the party, to round off the angles. The ambition: to try to convince him to put together a ticket with Buzyn and, at the very least, smoke the peace pipe to avoid a new fratricidal fight.
Nothing new at the end. "Status quo," says one in the camp of the mathematician, who patiently waits for his time, as an eminent specialist in equations with several unknowns. A fine observer of this campaign of rare complexity takes the bets: "If it is not Buzyn who comes out of the hat, they will neutralize each other, and it will land on Villani". In fact, the other options on the table do not bring anyone's agreement, from former Minister Mounir Mahjoubi to Senator LREM Julien Bargeton. A friend of the Elysée, his eyes raised to the sky, laughs: "There is Benalla who is available if not ..."