Hastily taken out of his car, dressed to the nines in his light gray suit, François Hollande arrives at the Brive Book Fair as a regular.
As a friend, even.
And late, of course.
He has an excuse: the former President of the Republic is on the campaign trail.
For Anne Hidalgo.
He showed himself in Tulle, alongside the mayor of Paris, earlier in the morning, this Saturday, to orchestrate a form of
"handover"
.
The candidate will join, in turn, in the afternoon the literary event.
Read also Brive book fair, chapter 1: gaillardes reunion
"
What is a former president for?"
“, Asks François Hollande, his book
Confronter
under the arm, at the beginning of his meeting. Do not scratch your head, he gives the answer: use his experience, among other things through writing.
"Trying to set a clear line for the future will be my destiny for the rest of my life."
Publishers have been warned. This interesting reflection follows: "
Our country is marked by associative vitality but by political disengagement."
To the questions of Eric Fottorino of 1, your solemn tone, the former first secretary of the PS evokes the commitment in Mali, the difficulty of governing in times of crisis, the extremism of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and, above all, the importance of social democracy in France.
François Hollande could write a love dictionary on the subject.
Minister
"tiktokeur"
The message has been passed on.
Anne Hidalgo speaks more of social democracy than socialism during the
"press point"
organized at the debotté in a hotel near the fair.
The candidate, courteous to journalists, says she is calm about the upcoming election.
Alarmist in its findings, abstract in its developments, it goes from the need for an ecological transition to "
Zemmour who falsifies history
", before strangling the Minister of Transport Jean-Baptiste Djebbari who is having fun on TikTok.
She alone would be able to measure up.
Ah, one subject does not come: literature.
In Brive, it's a strange oversight.
The former president of the general council of Corrèze in dedication.
Thierry matonnat
Sitting at their stand, separated by
Les fantômes
by Christophe Boltanski and
Les Valois
by Didier Decoin, the two elephants of the PS sign for several hours. The former head of state has the easy selfie. The red microphone of "Quotidien" is walking in all directions. There is a distinction between the Holland case, this quasi-regional stage cherished by the crowd, and that of Anne Hidalgo. The mayor of Paris is more sought after by curious than by readers. Some came to tell him their admiration, rejoices the candidate. Not all. In the street, a lady asks in her passage and aloud
"why she has not yet taken cream pie in the face"
.
Denis Tillinac, in the book train leading to Brive, in 2004. Maurice Rougemont / Opale / Leemage
What would Denis Tillinac have thought of this very rosy fair? The writer who loved Jacques Chirac, who died last September, was a pillar of the event. The young Guillaume Sire (who published at La Table Ronde, his publishing house), the journalists Jean-Paul Kauffmann and our colleague Éric Neuhoff, who were his friends, paid tribute to the man of
Spleen in Corrèze.
And to his happiness of nostalgia. His widow, Monique, was in the audience.
"Denis had a sense of humor and an appetite for everything,
" Kaufmann testifies. Tillinac had the knack of finding
"the right adjective"
, continues Neuhoff. Which is not nothing.
"With him, life took on original colors"
, he adds.
Nice compliment.
At the same time, the Brive Corrèze Limousin Athletic Club (CAB), which this lover of the ovalie loved, won at home against Racing 92. 12 to 10. It was the least of things.
