four questions on Anne Hidalgo’s proposal to organize a primary on the left, already widely rejected

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A real desire for union or the last card of a declining candidate? Anne Hidalgo’s proposal to organize a primary to appoint a single left-wing candidate for the 2022 presidential election, announced Wednesday, December 8 on TF1, surprised. Less than 24 hours later, she is already down in the wing: Yannick Jadot, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Fabien Roussel have all refused to participate. Franceinfo takes stock of this proposal and the reactions generated.

>> Primary on the left proposed by Anne Hidalgo: “this is not the solution”, answers the PCF candidate, Fabien Roussel. Follow our live.

1What does Anne Hidalgo offer?

On TF1, Wednesday evening, the socialist candidate called for “organize a primary of the left, arbitrated by our fellow citizens”. “I’m not here to say who can participate or not”, she added. His proposal is addressed to “those who want to govern together”. “It will of course be necessary to campaign for whoever wins”, is committed the mayor of Paris, questioned on the assumption of a victory of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

If her appeal remains a dead letter, Anne Hidalgo says on the other hand that she will not withdraw “obviously” not his candidacy for the presidential election.

This proposal to organize a primary is a surprise. The invitation of the socialist candidate was also presented by TF1 as an announcement of “last minute”, less than three hours before the newspaper.

2What do left-wing candidates say?

Only one candidate, also struggling in the polls, reacted rather positively to this announcement: Arnaud Montebourg. The former socialist minister had published an open letter a few hours earlier in which he said he was ready to “to offer” to fade behind “a common candidate”. “I am delighted with the initiative taken by Anne Hidalgo following my appeal”, he reacted on franceinfo on Wednesday evening. However, Arnaud Montebourg did not make a commitment to participate in the primary: he made the participation of “those who are in the lead”. “I’m not going to end up in a primary with Ms. Hidalgo one-on-one, that doesn’t make sense”, he decided.

Elsewhere, the reception was very different. If Jean-Luc Mélenchon has not yet spoken, several representatives of La France insoumise have swept the idea. “Us, that does not make us dream”, decided the deputy Danièle Obono Wednesday evening on BFMTV. “The candidates are programs”, also reacted the deputy Eric Coquerel on RTL, Thursday morning. “Between Anne Hidalgo, who is still very close to the legacy of François Hollande, and us, there are very deep differences.”

The refusal is just as clear in the ecologist Yannick Jadot, the other left-wing candidate who is ahead of Anne Hidalgo in the polls. “No, I will not participate in a primary of the left”, he replied Thursday on Europe 1. “Because the election is in four and a half months, and we have to be a little serious.” He sees in this surprise ad “a statement of failure” from Anne Hidalgo. Even more scathing, on franceinfo, the national secretary of EELV, Julien Bayou, perceives “some sort of ploy to maybe dress up a withdrawal.” He decided on Wednesday evening on Twitter : “The project for the future is ecology. The primary has already taken place and the candidate is Yannick Jadot.”

Communist Fabien Roussel also excludes participating. “The primary is made to decide on this or that candidate. We believe that the problem of the left is to be able to unite on a program”, he explained on franceinfo on Thursday. Making an appeal to Anne Hidalgo and Arnaud Montebourg: “If you don’t know what to do, if you doubt your candidacy, come join us.”

Even in the socialist camp, some seem skeptical. BFMTV was filming the reaction of François Hollande on Wednesday about a joint application from the left, reacting to Arnaud Montebourg’s comments. “It can’t be improvised, he thought then. A union application only makes sense if there is a common program (…) and we know that this is not the case. “

This idea of ​​primary was rejected so quickly that the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, has already been able to react, Thursday morning on France Inter. “Today, everyone will say ‘I have a pool’, ‘I am doing something else’, because no one wants to see reality. But we cannot continue to be in denial.”, he pleaded, assuring to believe that the idea can still be imposed.

3How quickly should a primary be organized?

The first round of the presidential election will take place on April 10, 2022, in four months. A very short deadline, in particular pointed out by environmentalists. “It’s a false proposal for a primary, out of time”, comments David Cormand, one of the people in charge of Yannick Jadot’s campaign, in an article in World.

A late primary would not be unprecedented. In 2017, the socialist candidate Benoît Hamon was appointed on January 29 (but the first round of the presidential election was scheduled later, on April 23). The electoral calendar requires having deposited its 500 sponsorships of elected officials before March 4, but this deadline would not necessarily be a problem for candidates whose collection is well advanced. Anne Hidalgo says she already has the required signatures.

If the left had to improvise a last-minute primary, it could also join an already existing initiative, the Popular Primary. This ballot is due to take place online between January 27 and 30. An appeal on his behalf has been signed nearly 250,000 times. Its operation is a bit special: during a first phase, Internet users proposed the name of a personality of their choice, who did not necessarily have to be a candidate. Among the 10 most cited names include Christiane Taubira, François Ruffin, Clémentine Autain and economist Gaël Giraud. The final list of candidates put to the vote must be decided on January 15. Applicants must however be volunteers.

“There is a popular primary which already brings together more than 230,000 citizens. We can build on it and consider broader terms”, explained Anne Hidalgo to World Wednesday evening. One of the organizers’ spokespersons welcomed his announcement. “I see them later to discuss with them how we can organize a democratic process together” said Olivier Faure on France Inter Thursday.

4Didn’t Anne Hidalgo refuse a primary?

Some detractors of his proposal, like the Insubordinate Alexis Corbière, did not fail to recall the remarks that Anne Hidalgo still held on Wednesday morning on France 2. “You know very well that a union which would be perceived as artificial, because there are candidates who have been declared for a very long time, would not work”, she replied about the union proposed by Arnaud Montebourg. In November, on Public Senate, she even more explicitly rejected the organization of a ballot to decide between left-wing candidates: “I am not in favor of this type of primary. (…) We do not carry the same proposals.”

The PS candidate was also firmly opposed to the organization of a socialist primary, demanded by her rival, Stéphane Le Foll. A compromise had finally been found: the organization of a vote reserved for activists, in October, which she had won.

In the spring, when Yannick Jadot organized a meeting between the various leftist formations to try to find common ground, Anne Hidalgo had participated in a first meeting, in April, when she was not officially a candidate. She then congratulated herself on the launch of a work “which must propose a coalition to the French, and why not a common candidacy”. But the initiative had crumbled between this first meeting and the second, in May, at which Anne Hidalgo was absent.


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