On the eve of the opening of the popular Primary vote, the presidential candidate Christiane Taubira went to Briançon, in the Hautes-Alpes. But as soon as she arrived on Wednesday January 26, under the sun and a dry cold, she came up against a small group of anti-capitalist No Border activists. “You are exploiting the migration issue as an electoral business”calls out one of the activists. “Because you find that the migration issue pays off electorally?replies Christiane Taubira. Believing that it pays off electorally is really living off-screen and off-ground. That does not prevent your presence alongside people who need it from being completely beneficial.”
The candidate therefore decides to shorten her trip. A simple coffee replaces the planned visit to a local migrant aid association, and a passage through the border post with Italy, near a ski slope. “Behind this small mountain, we have a track that gives direct access to Italy”, explains a volunteer who accompanies him. He points to the snowy pass through which those fleeing Afghanistan or African countries pass every day.
“We have already had injuries, even one who had all his toes amputated. And also people who died of cold”
A volunteer from a local association helping migrantsat franceinfo
The former Keeper of the Seals plays the humanism card: “We’re not all becoming monsters”and took the opportunity to tackle the far right. “Undoubtedly, you have people who are going to show off in Calais, in Menton, who proclaim that we are going to carry out a border policy with barbed wireshe criticizes bluntly. France is something else!”
“France is a country that has welcomed, that has received. That is to say that customs, lifestyles, lifestyles, creativity have been enriched through contact with these people.”
Christiane Taubiraat franceinfo
Christiane Taubira is directly targeting Éric Zemmour. And yet when we speak to her about him, she immediately replies: “Mr. Zemmour does not interest me. With a capital letter, with a lowercase letter, with a comma, with an ellipsis, he does not interest me. I am not a therapist, I do not cure people who come publicly to explain their anxieties, their pathologies and their internal tears.”
More than countering Éric Zemmour’s ideas with scathing phrases, Christiane Taubira tries to show, at an altitude of 1800 meters, that she is her best defense on the left.