“I have decided to be a candidate for the presidency of the French Republic”: the socialist mayor of Paris, Anne Hidalgo, announced it this morning in Rouen, Normandy. The socialist mayor of Paris launches into the race for the Elysée, a candidacy that is added to those on the left. An announcement that comes after several months of travel, to have “the bases, these points of understanding to be able to speak to the country”. It is on the quay, in the city of the young socialist mayor Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, a relative, that Anne Hidalgo chose to speak on Sunday morning: an ideal place to illustrate the industrial reconversion through the ecological transition, which will be one of the central themes of the his campaign. Rouen also allows you to give “a national dimension” to your candidacy, to respond to the trial of the Parisian who has been at the head of the capital since 2014. Anne Hidalgo will be surrounded by most of her electoral team, mayors and parliamentarians of all of France, like Johanna Rolland, city councilor of Nantes who will be its director of the electoral campaign or the president of the Occitan region Carole Delga. Currently credited with between 7 and 9% of the votes according to polls, Anne Hidalgo remembers being defeated in Paris as well. “We were convinced that she would not have moved if she had not had a clear candidacy,” explains those around her. Her speech will allow her to explain “why she is launching and for what project”. In particular, it should highlight the values of social democracy and “republican equality”, which this daughter of Spanish immigrants who arrived in France at the age of two made her “compass”.
His statement comes three days before the release of his book “Une femme francaise”, (Editions de l’Observatoire), where he reveals his vision of France and some of his priorities. In addition to the “ecological transition”, which must not be made “at the expense of the middle classes and popular categories”, he wants to tackle “inequalities” and allow everyone to “live better than their jobs anywhere in France”, as he explained before to several hundred elected parties who left in Villeurbanne in July. Thus, for the “invisible” (carers, cashiers …) who “make society work every day of the year”, it is “economically quite bearable to raise wages”, he says in his book, citing the CFDT which proposes an increase overall by 15%, “a solid lead,” according to her. Another priority is school. He believes it is “possible for a five-year period to multiply the salaries of teachers by at least two”. According to Senator Remi Feraud, “it is autumn that will determine which candidate will bring a dynamic”, in the face of the multiplication of contenders on the left, of which those of the Insoumis Jean-Luc Melenchon, the former socialist Arnaud Montebourg, the communist Fabien Roussel is the candidate of the environmental primaries of the end of September. “The challenge for the next few months will be to build a credible alternative”, he said, underlining the international stature of the mayor of Paris, “his socialist and environmental political stature”, which you were able to highlight in the management of the capital, “His ability to campaign” and the support of the Socialist Party. Anne Hidalgo will have to go through an internal vote of socialist activists, after the PS congress in late September, to distinguish herself from her potential competitors, including Le Mans mayor Stephane Le Foll. But this vote should be a formality. It is supported by Olivier Faure, first secretary of the PS, in the running to be re-elected soon to lead the party.