"If I were a candidate, it would not be to testify ..." From her office at the town hall of Paris, Anne Hidalgo throws small stones to meet the conditions for a candidacy for the presidential election of 2022. But the latest Harris Interactive poll
(carried out online on January 19 and 20 with a representative sample of 1,403 people, including 976 registered on the electoral rolls, according to the quota method)
is not likely to give it wings.
The socialist collects between 6 and 7% of the voting intentions, a slap similar to that of Benoît Hamon in 2017. She is left behind by Jean-Luc Mélenchon (10% -11%) but also by the ecologist Yannick Jadot (7 to 8%).
"We are 15 months from the presidential election, and in the midst of a health crisis, the French have no mind at all in 2022", proclaims Patrick Bloche, deputy for the mayor's Childhood.
“And above all, he recalls, Anne Hidalgo did not apply, so it's all theoretical.
"
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"This just indicates that the French are not ready to judge a person in charge solely on his personality and his notoriety, they want to know more about the line, the project", reasons the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure who has repeatedly repeated that 'Anne Hidalgo "would make an excellent president".
On this issue, the mayor of Paris is launching in a few days her platform "Ideas in common" to garner contributions and possible support.
An approach which was successful for him in the last municipal elections but which this time will have to seduce beyond the periphery.
And that's the whole challenge.
Travel on the agenda
“Anne Hidalgo absolutely has to make herself known elsewhere than in Paris, but it will be difficult.
We do not build national notoriety in a year and a half ”, fears a socialist tenor.
The mayor already has travel in mind.
On February 11, she will be in Rouen (Seine-Maritime) to discuss the future of the Seine Axis, alongside a certain Edouard Philippe.
In March, she will be in Bordeaux (Gironde) for a meeting of the International Association of French-speaking Mayors, which she chairs.
Nancy (Meurthe-et-Moselle), Montpellier (Hérault) are also in its shelves.
Each time, according to what the health measures allow, Anne Hidalgo would like to meet supporters and local contributors to Ideas in common.
The next regional will also be an indicator for the mayor who supports the candidacy of her deputy Audrey Pulvar in Ile-de-France.
A double-edged bet.
A good score would strengthen it but ... "if Audrey Pulvar loses that will also sign the end of any presidential hope for Anne Hidalgo", slice a socialist official.
The mayor of Paris is leaving until September to see if a rally beyond the PS is possible.
"We need a collective approach, the politician has an interest in being combative, determined, but that does not mean that he must be alone", she confides in private, brushing aside the idea of a woman or of a providential man.
In her office where PSG jerseys and a rugby ball are enthroned, Anne Hidalgo compares the necessary mentality to "that of high-level athletes".
Considering the first survey and the stages to come, it is rather engaged in a hurdle race.
