By SudOuest.fr with AFP
Christiane Taubira has confirmed that she will be a presidential candidate, bringing the number of candidates on the left to six
Christiane Taubira put an end to the “suspense” this Saturday during a trip to Lyon. The former Keeper of the Seals of François Hollande has confirmed that she is a candidate in the presidential election. Less than three months from the first round, the left therefore now has six main candidates, none of whom have so far exceeded the 10% mark in the polls.
“The pandemic has revealed social suffering which has affected all generations”, declared the former minister and former presidential candidate of 2002 during a militant rally for the union of the left, in the district of La Croix-Rousse, a symbolic choice in a nod to the Canuts, the former workers of this silk district.
Youth, social justice, ecology…
She said she wanted to respond to “anger” in the face of “social injustices”, specifying that she heard in particular to convene a “conference on wages” with a program based on the defense of youth, social justice or even ecology. “I want a government that knows how to dialogue instead of moralizing and caporalizing”, she slammed, alluding to the controversy over the words of President Emmanuel Macron who said he wanted to “fuck the non-vaccinated” against the Covid -19.
His statement comes in a busy political weekend: his rival Anne Hidalgo not far in Villeurbanne, Valérie Pécresse in Greece on the control of migrants, video of Marine Le Pen at the Louvre, Eric Zemmour at Château-Thierry or even Jean-Luc Melenchon in Nantes.
François Hollande’s former Keeper of the Seals, known in particular for the law recognizing slavery as a crime against humanity and his fight for the opening of marriage to homosexual couples, thus puts an end to the expectation that she had aroused in a part of the voters of the left on December 17, by announcing “to consider” to be a candidate, in the face of the “impasse” of a fragmented left.
No breakthrough in the polls
Less than three months before the presidential election, can she succeed in forming the union that has so far failed, while some socialists still regard her as having contributed through her candidacy to the ousting of Lionel Jospin in the first round of the 2002 presidential? She then won only 2.32% of the vote. Its entry into the arena a month ago has so far not led to any breakthrough in voting intentions, despite the popular fervor it enjoys on the ground.
And his candidacy “adds confusion to the division” according to his detractors, while five other candidates are already in the running, without succeeding in winning: the Insoumis Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the ecologist Yannick Jadot, the socialist Anne Hidalgo, the communist Fabien Roussel and the cantor of the “Remontada” of France Arnaud Montebourg, close to abandonment.
Christiane Taubira has promised to submit to the citizens’ initiative of the popular primary, an “investiture” by left-wing voters – already 120,000 registered to vote – whatever the result. Even if her supporters pretend to believe that nothing is won, she is the favorite of this consultation, especially since the other left-wing candidates whose names will also be proposed in this ballot have all refused to submit to it.
“Surprises and new ideas”
Even Anne Hidalgo, in great difficulty in the polls, who pleaded for a primary on the left, finally gave up, noting the refusal of her competitors, and in particular Yannick Jadot, to accept this approach.
The ex-rebellious PS Christian Paul, who is campaigning alongside him, is “betting” that in February, “if the potential for enthusiasm translates into voting intentions” in the polls, ” several candidates will draw the consequences of the result of the primary”.
Already strengthened by the support of the more than 80 committees that bear her name and created long before she launched into the battle, Christiane Taubira sees the arrival “every day of people who come forward to participate”, including “known directors “says a relative. She has “no worries” either about sponsorships, assures those around her. “A certain number of left-wing elected officials, beyond the PRG, support his approach,” it is said.
Christiane Taubira, guest of the 20 hours of France 2, will present her program later, which will contain “surprises and new ideas”, but “without being a La Redoute or Ikea catalog of 1,000 proposals”.