She could stay there all day.
Under this hangar on the Plaine Saint-Denis, in the middle of the tons of products accumulated by the MaMaMa association mobilized against child insecurity, Clémentine Autain listens to the volunteers, notes in passing two questions to ask the National Assembly and promises the help from the region, if elected.
"It's a political choice."
That Wednesday, the deputy LFI, credited in our poll with 11% of the vote on June 20, is at home, in Seine-Saint-Denis.
No need to make introductions.
The volunteers immediately recognize the media figure.
Singer at 10
Gone are the days when the artist's daughter, born in March 1973 in Saint-Cloud (Hauts-de-Seine) and who grew up between the Place de Clichy and the Batignolles in Paris (17th century), began alongside Bertrand Delanoë (PS). At the time, it was the PCF that spotted it. The PS? “Especially not,” she replied to her uncle, François Autain, a socialist senator (then to the Left Party) with whom she was very close, when he had questioned her about her very young wish to become involved in politics. While at 10 she took her first steps as a singer. An anecdote which the ex-senator (PCF) Nicole Borvo-Cohen-Seat still enjoys, who saw her enter the Paris Council in 2001: "Clémentine was already very independent." At 27, the youth assistant learns quickly. Celine Silhouette,elected in the opposition (1995-2001) had noticed this quality in her collaborator: "She had resources."
After a mandate, Clémentine Autain said Ciao to the capital.
Yet she adores "walking at random" there.
Direction Seine-Saint-Denis, for personal reasons.
A suburb is that she never leaves.
Her husband teaches there.
His children are educated "in priority education".
“I've been told about political suicide,” she smiles.
But after years of “precarious contracts”, columnist at France Culture, professor at Sciences-po, the media figure is indeed returning: the municipal ones in Sevran, in 2014, and one year later, the regional ones.
Clémentine Autain sat for two years, then joined the Assembly.
A “understandable” choice, according to Céline Malaisé (PCF), president of the Front de gauche group in the region, which leaves at his side: “It denotes.
There is no small game with it. ”
She shakes up the codes
This independence commands respect.
Including among his opponents, like the former LREM candidate Elsa Wanlin.
But just as annoying.
Her criticisms of the party line to the Europeans in 2019, had earned her the bronca of her own and the coldness of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, for whom she was the spokesperson during the 2012 presidential election. "She is the one who is right. You have to know how to assert yourself ”, defends Raquel Garrido (LFI), number 2 on the list in the 93,“ impressed by this uninhibited ambition ”.
Others call her a "careerist", "haughty".
The feminist, co-founder of the Mix-Cité association in 1997, pulls out her teeth: “Men with the same background as mine would not wipe out such criticism.
I stopped living in politics for a very long time and can start over.
It gives me some freedom. ”
The freedom to think - the intellectual at the head of the newspaper "Regards" writes a lot - and to advocate the unification of the left.
"It has always been a link between the Communists and the Insoumis", appreciates the deputy and friend Stéphane Peu (PCF).
At these regional, it is committed to a merger of the lists with the other left candidates in the second round.
Long before the #Meetoo wave, in 2006, Clémentine Autain revealed in a book the rape of which she was a victim, as a student.
In the middle of the Assembly, she recounts her abortion.
Shaking up the codes does not scare him.
“In a time when we want to fit everyone into a mold, we need this type of singularity,” defends Gilles Poux, mayor (PCF) of La Courneuve.
She "assumes everything".
Whatever the attacks.
For months, François Asensi has been beating him cold.
The former deputy who dubbed her in 2017 in the 11th constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis did not digest that she presented herself to the regional, without a word to the activists.
When asked about him, he closes the door: “I have nothing to say”.
An “injury”, regrets the candidate.
But the trials of childhood, a drifting mother who died when she was only 12 years old, forged character.
She is not ready to give up: "I will die as a committed woman."
Its five flagship proposals
In her book "To be able to live in Ile-de-France", published on May 6 by Le Seuil, Clémentine Autain outlines her program, which involves "a shock of solidarity".
1. The free canteen for high school students.
This measure could apply from September, for the first four installments of the family quotient.
A measure that would cost between 12 and 19 million euros.
2. Free transport for young people and the most vulnerable.
Free transport from which young Parisians benefit would be extended to the entire region, to 18-25 year olds and to beneficiaries of social minima.
3. A Normal School for caregivers.
If health is not a main competence of the region, the community could open a training course of 20,000 places for orderlies and nurses, during which they would be paid.
In return, they undertake to work with the public for ten years.
4. “A public repair service”.
The candidate wishes to multiply by ten the number of resource centers in the region, by relying on the creation of an apprenticeship training center dedicated to repair trades.
5. “Ecological and solidarity vouchers”.
To "boost new, more virtuous practices" and support local traders, the region could publish these cross-checks on local shops and a certain type of product.
A voucher bought for 50 euros, for example, would be matched by 20% by the region.