This is an additional blow for Anne Hidalgo, PS candidate for the 2022 presidential election, already in great difficulty in the polls.
Invited on the set of BFMTV, the former socialist minister Ségolène Royal declared her support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, candidate of France Insoumise.
“Today the question is: what will be the useful vote on the left?
And it is obvious that it is the Mélenchon vote, since it is he who professionally makes the best campaign, which is in the process of rounding off the angles in relation to what could displease him, ”says Ségolène Royal in a very complimentary speech.
“He is able to answer all the questions, he is structured, cultivated, he has the experience of a presidential campaign, he knows how to take blows, he is the most solid, continues the ex-candidate. socialist in the presidential election of 2007. If the left wants to be in the second round, the leaders must meet and look at what brings us together and not what divides us.
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Presidential: for Ségolène Royal (@RoyalSegolene), "the useful vote on the left is Mélenchon" pic.twitter.com/v0yn216DVq
– BFMTV (@BFMTV) February 16, 2022
Ségolène Royal also deplored the lack of debate in this campaign, the only way to truly sound out a candidate and his project.
“If in a democracy you don't have a debate, you can't assess the candidates, they reveal themselves in a debate.
They are obliged to carry a program, and the fact that there was no such thing then prevented the legitimacy of a candidate from being established
(about Christiane Taubira)
and then it was a big deal what with the popular primary, the voting intentions were good but they came much too late.
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Why this unexpected support?
Ségolène Royal has remained at odds with the Socialist Party since her former party refused to invest her to represent French people living abroad in the senatorial elections last September.
Last September, she brandished as a threat against her party the possibility of running again in the race for the Élysée.
"Since the PS gives me back my freedom, if I consider that in the political debate, it is necessary to represent things differently and to gather differently, I do not exclude anything", she had declared on France 2.
And it's been several months since Ségolène Royal called on the various left formations to unite to avoid a "Bérézina".
Until now, she had not clearly named this candidate capable, according to her, of saving the left from the doldrums.
With approximately 10% of voting intentions, the rebellious candidate is currently the best placed left-wing candidate, even if he remains far from his rivals on the right (Valérie Pécresse) and on the far right (Marine Le Pen and Eric Zemmour) which are given around 15% and especially Emmanuel Macron estimated around 25% in the 1st round.