Presidential 2022: in a meeting in Rennes, Anne Hidalgo attacks Macron … and Mélenchon

The PS candidate gave an offensive speech attacking the head of state on his refusal to debate and his proposal on pensions. Without naming him, the mayor of Paris also attacked the rebellious candidate, accusing him of “complacency with dictators”.

Before, when the socialist presidential candidates held a meeting in Rennes la rose, those around them saw things big. We reserved large rooms and the activists were always present. In 2012, nearly 18,000 Bretons came to watch the “handover” between Ségolène Royal and François Hollande. Five years later, they were still 4,000 to come to applaud a Benoît Hamon who was nevertheless beginning to unscrew in the polls. But today, the old socialist house has lost its luster. So much so that an opinion poll this week gave its candidate, Anne Hidalgo, 1.5% of the voting intentions, either behind Jean Lassalle or Philippe Poutou.

So when the mayor of Paris arrives in Rennes in 2022, we play it modest. It is under the hall of a covered market in the city center that nearly 700 people were invited on Friday to listen to the champion of roses. “Now the meetings are broadcast on social networks and we no longer want to spend money like in the past, attempts to justify someone close to the candidate. And then the French are not yet in the countryside, that is to say if going to a meeting is not one of their priorities. Volunteers install French and European flags and yellow and blue placards in support of Ukraine on the seats. “We need more Hidalgo 2022 flags in this area”, slips one of them, realizing a bad distribution.

“Unwavering Support”

Many white heads then come to fill the rows of chairs. In the front row (just behind the two rows reserved for elected officials) there are Daniel and Christiane, a retired couple aged 77 and 78. “Socialists have always been” even if they only took their card at the PS for the first time in 2006. “We are here to provide our unwavering support to Anne Hidalgo”they explain with one voice even if they are lucid. “We know very well that she will not go to the second round”, Daniel breathes. The fault according to them to the media which does not “don’t give the place that should be his and who prefer to talk about Zemmour”. We think we hear Anne Hidalgo repeating over TV shows: “today it is better to be a negationist fascist than a republican left woman”.

In the middle of the experienced socialists, several groups of young people. Unlike their elders who will necessarily vote “Anne Hidalgo” next April 10, they look more like “undecided”. “We came to listen to it and then make our choice”, slip Nathan and Leo, both 21 years old. “I’m not sure yet but I really like his speech very focused on ecology”, explains Julien a few rows away. “I could vote for her because I think she has a chance of qualifying in the second round”, affirms most seriously of the world Manolo, 21 years old. “Yes you are right to within 15%”, replies tac-au-tac his friend Flavien, ironically.

After the interventions of local elected officials, Anne Hidalgo finally arrives on stage to loud applause. News obliges, the mayor of Paris begins with Ukraine. “My first thought goes to these Ukrainian people who had won their freedom and who now live under Putin’s bombs”, launches the mayor of Paris. Facing Russia “cruel and bloody” Putin, the candidate pleads for strong financial sanctions going until the stop of the imports of gas and Russian oil.

“The retirement age at 65. But what a scandal!

Each in turn. After Putin, the candidate angles her speech on the outgoing president. First tackle on his refusal to participate in a debate before the first round: “the Republic is not the monarchy and the election is not the coronation of Reims! It is still surprising to have the slogan With you and as soon as it is a question of debating, of saying it is without me”, she squeals. Anne Hidalgo returns to pensions while the entourage of the Head of State has confirmed that in the event of re-election, the outgoing is considering postponing the retirement age to 65 years. “But what a scandal”, she chants. I tell you: we will preserve the retirement age, it will be 62, not a year more! In the room, the applause goes crescendo.

It is the same when the socialist slips into her speech a nod to François Hollande and his victorious presidential campaign of 2012. “In this country undermined today by inequalities from an early age, at school, then at the start of their professional lives, and throughout their careers, my opponent is injustice!” , launches Hidalgo, an allusion to the famous “my real enemy is the world of finance” pronounced by the Corrézien at Le Bourget ten years earlier.

Violent attacks against Mélenchon

Despite polls that place her light years away from a potential second round, Anne Hidalgo is trying to convince her activists that nothing is over yet. So faced with the strategy of “useful vote” that the supporters of Jean-Luc Mélenchon want to put in place, the only candidate with voting intentions above 10% in the polls, the socialist sings the refrain of “credibility” . “The reformist left is making reforms, the protesting left is content to protest”, she lets go targeting Jean-Luc Mélenchon without ever mentioning his name. The city councilor goes further by attacking him then with violence on his international positions. “There is no future on the left in complacency with dictatorships : with Putin’s Russia, Bashar El-Assad’s Syria, Maduro’s Venezuela. There is no future with its back turned to human rights, to the rule of law, to secularism, to the European Union. There is no future in populism and demagogy,” does she say.

21 hours. The meeting ends with the Marseillaise. At the exit, Gérard, 72, a former rocardien really liked what he had just heard. “It was a beautiful speech, a beautiful speech of valueshe slips. Unfortunately we know that it will not go to the second round but maybe we will be able to stay united for the future.. Inside, the volunteers hurry to put everything away. “In a few hours, the place will become a market again”, one of them smiled.