Will the campaign finally take off for the mayor of Paris?
Already declared a candidate, Anne Hidalgo was invested this Thursday evening by the Socialist Party for the presidential election, a prelude to a "collective mobilization" around the elected.
Credited by the polls of 4 to 7% of the vote, Anne Hidalgo is engaged in the battle for 2022 without waiting for this nomination, which she knew almost acquired, since she has for months the support of the authorities of the party, of which that of the First Secretary Olivier Faure.
During the recent PS Congress, the latter also judged that the candidate would "probably have a very large majority", facing her only challenger, the mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll.
The latter did not have any illusions: "The mass is said", he had recognized, denouncing the absence of debate with the Parisian councilor.
But he warned the Socialists against the "risk of going by the wayside" in 2022 because of "the indefiniteness, the non-affirmation and the form of inconsistency since the start of the Anne Hidalgo campaign".
A failed entry into the race?
The vote completed, the party must now put itself in order of battle behind its candidate, with an investiture convention on October 23 in Lille, stronghold of Martine Aubry, her political mentor.
The opportunity for a first meeting to ring "collective mobilization", with some heavyweights of the PS announced.
But without François Lamy, ex-minister of François Hollande, who has just announced that he is joining the campaign of Yannick Jadot, a direct competitor.
Lille will “bring together the different generations of the socialist family,” assures its campaign manager, Johanna Rolland.
“People from civil society and advocates” will also be present.
Read also Paris Council: environmentalists sound the charge against Anne Hidalgo
Anne Hidalgo's opponents believe that she missed her entry into the presidential race.
"You are at 4%, subscribed to 4% and you will not go further," ex-minister LR Rachida Dati told him on Wednesday in the middle of the Council of Paris, mocking "a desperate and desperate electoral campaign".
In fact, the mayor of Paris has been rather discreet since the formalization of her candidacy on September 12 in Rouen.
Those close to him defend the “bias” of a start to the campaign “with low noise, on the substance, on the ground”, and promise a “rise in power”.
" Everybody on the bridge "
"She is not in the countryside until she is invested", emphasizes Olivier Faure.
But he warns: “From next weekend, there will be posters pasted, leaflets (especially in Île-de-France).
I fully expect that the socialists' entry into the campaign will produce some effects.
"
The activists will be mobilized this weekend around an operation called "all on the bridge".
"We will finally be able to go into the countryside, the activists are just waiting for that, we know how to do it very well, we are super structured", explains an executive.
Read also Anne Hidalgo at the Elysee?
Parisians divided
The entourage of Anne Hidalgo ensures that there is "no kind of concern or reluctance" around her candidacy, while on the environmental side, some already dream of seeing her rally Yannick Jadot, for the moment slightly higher in the polls.
"In his party, we see executives who say
we see each other soon
, who leave the door open," notes an EELV official.
"Anne Hidalgo is very determined and will be able to prove that she is in the game", answers Johanna Rolland.
“The bet we are making is that in the end, we will ask ourselves, on the left, who is ready to govern.
Anne Hidalgo is the only one to have these qualities, ”adds Olivier Faure.
The mayor of Paris assures herself that she "will go to the end".
