The idea formulated by Anne Hidalgo on Thursday December 8 to organize a primary open to the entire left for the presidential election seems to have little chance of success, but has paved the way for a real enterprise of disqualification. Proposal, disqualification and incantation: it is indeed the triptych to which the left indulged in barely a few hours. Thursday therefore, Anne Hidalgo creates the surprise, on the set of 20h of TF1: “Let’s organize a primary from the left, explains the socialist mayor of Paris. That come to participate in this primary, the candidates who want to govern together. The French men and women who will participate will referee, but let’s give this hope back. “
A strong proposal on the part of the socialist candidate, and which intervenes, let us note it, while her campaign does not finish any more not to start. But, for a primary to work, it must still include candidates! And this is where the going gets tough. Since Thursday, with the exception of Arnaud Montebourg, all his competitors have opposed an end of inadmissibility. And it’s even worse than that: they immediately took the opportunity to attack.
“I listened like everyone else to Anne Hidalgo, declared Yannick Jadot environmental candidate on Europe 1. She takes note of the impasse of her candidacy. There is an observation of the failure of the socialist candidacy. “Eric Coquerel, deputy “La France insoumise” of Seine-Saint-Denis, on RTL is not much less tender: “What I am asking of Ms. Hidalgo, whose problems and concerns I understand, which cannot take off, is not to try to put a strain on those who are progressing and who can go to the second round.” At last Fabien Roussel, Communist candidate, even launches on franceinfo: “To Anne Hidalgo as to Arnaud Montebourg, I tell them, if you do not know what to do, if you doubt your candidacy, as I have the feeling. Come and join us.” Anne Hidalgo’s proposal especially aroused criticism and, even, mockery from her opponents.
DIRECT Primary on the left proposed by Anne Hidalgo: “This is not the solution”, replies PCF candidate Fabien Rousselhttps: //t.co/I6SFvyn4rJ pic.twitter.com/szcZ8lSXFz
– franceinfo (@franceinfo) December 9, 2021
It’s called “shoot the ambulance”! The problem here is more negotiation than argumentation: Anne Hidalgo is quite simply in a very unfavorable balance of power. Barely in the polls, his proposal comes across as a sign of weakness rather than an outstretched hand. Therefore, why would his competitors get entangled in a primary. When can they take this opportunity to disqualify an opponent?
Is this the end of the rally of the left? No, it’s the opposite ! The voters would obviously have to come together eventually. The only problem is that it will be in at least three different places! “I call on the socialist voters, those of Montebourg to meet and work together around my pact for France” continues Fabien Roussel. “I believe that the best way to unite is what we did last weekend, that is to say a meeting where Jean-Luc Mélenchon recalled our program”, notes Eric Coquerel. “The choice of environmentalists is precisely to bring together very widely”, affirms Yannick Jadot. It is therefore the return of a rhetorical scheme that we have already encountered. Since the political parties have not managed to unite behind a single candidacy, each of the candidates now claims to bring together the people behind him.
Of course, it is neither more nor less than an incantation. Candidates present reality not as it is, but as they would like it to be. Moreover, it is a fairly classic process: remember, a few weeks ago, each of the candidates for the Congress of the Republicans estimated to be the only one able to beat Emmanuel Macron in the second round. It’s fair game because after all, the very principle of incantation is to create the conditions for a self-fulfilling prophecy. By dint of presenting the rally behind them as inevitable, voters may end up being convinced. Leading, precisely, to the announced gathering. The risk, of course, is to contradict the manifest reality to such an extent that the prophecy becomes incongruous and, therefore, counterproductive. Considering the level of left-wing candidates in the polls, currently, one can wonder if this is not the case.