“
The PRG is stepping back.
Which does not mean that its elected officials will not individually, for some, bring their sponsorship to Christiane Taubira
”.
In a few words Monday, February 14, Guillaume Lacroix sounded the death knell for his party's support for the former Keeper of the Seals, who currently only benefits from 47 sponsorships from elected officials for the presidential election.
Yet winner of the popular primary, she has not yet managed to pass the 5% mark in the polls.
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The union of candidates "
will not happen
"...
"
We have been involved in a process of gathering the left for a year and a half, we were the only left-wing family to do so
", summed up Guillaume Lacroix.
"
We then started behind Christiane Taubira's approach, which was built on the gathering of left-wing candidates (...) But I take note after weeks and weeks of discussions with all left-wing political leaders, all together, that this form of union will not happen
”, he acknowledged.
The gathering of candidates being therefore largely compromised - "
At some point we have to accept
it" - the president of the PRG dissociated his party from Christiane Taubira who "
has changed her campaign to a citizenship campaign based on 400,000 voters, founded on the Taubira committees, on youth.
“
I welcome this momentum and this breath around a candidacy on the left.
It's not that often.
Only the mandate of the PRG was another mandate and therefore the PRG as such is stepping back
,” he concluded.
Less than forty PRG signatures
This decision was taken Saturday morning during a party executive committee.
It releases some 280 elected officials likely to give sponsorship.
170 of them had already sent a promise of sponsorship but only less than 40 of them had materialized with a signature.
That of Lacroix was still on his desk on Monday but was to leave in the evening for Taubira's HQ.
Without enthusiasm, however.
“
I've been committed to her for so long, I'm not going to take my support away from her now.
.."
“
We cannot deny that we are not completely calm on the sponsorship side
”, recognizes a close friend of Christiane Taubira.
However, he tries to put this defection from the PRG into perspective.
"
We have already known for a while that we could not count on all their signatures...
" Many questions remain Monday evening on the reasons for this withdrawal while Guillaume Lacroix denies any internal pressure following the differences with Christiane Taubira, on secularism for example.
Support for the PS or Emmanuel Macron?
Around Anne Hidalgo, some are trying to convince that the objective of the PRG was to bend the socialist candidate towards support for the candidacy of the ecologist Yannick Jadot.
This rallying could have been more or less attempted eight days ago during a small committee meeting in Romainville (Seine-Saint-Denis).
Others say that some PRG elected officials are tempted to support Emmanuel Macron, or that support has been withdrawn because of the links, often strong in local executives, between the PRG and the PS, which reiterated again on Monday, by the voice of its first secretary, firm support for its candidate.