“I fight every day…” Christiane Taubira, a “stations of the cross” campaign

The ship sinks but she tries to keep her head above water. Christiane Taubira arrives in good shape on Thursday in Colombes (Hauts-de-Seine) for a day devoted to disability. Even the mask can’t take his smile away. The presidential candidate is greeted by the sun and the applause of people working in an Esat (establishments or services of help through work) dedicated to catering. “I am very happy to be here and to see what you are doing. It’s a gift for me. Thank you for devoting time to me, ”she slips at the entrance. Despite polls at half mast and too few sponsorships two weeks before the ax date, the former Minister of Justice is continuing her campaign, seemingly nothing.

“My desire is to create the gathering”

Blouse on the shoulders and charlotte on the head, Christiane Taubira exchanges lengthily with the personnel in situation of handicap. “I know less than you about cooking, even if there are one or two things I know how to do, she laughs. But you demonstrate that there is no sense in separating people with disabilities. You have confidence in yourself, and you are right. The former Keeper of the Seals insists on the need to apply existing laws, in particular on the integration of disabled workers into the labor market. “They are practically complete, but we have to enforce them, in companies and the administration, or we impose fines,” she told a worried young employee.

The Guyanese also evokes her taste for the pan flute, literature, and even declaims a few verses written by one of the members of the establishment. “I like you, and I like François Hollande,” confides one of the workers. “He’s lucky, Hollande!” I’m going to tell him that Elodie likes him, ”replies the candidate. Another confides to him her desire to see the left return to power. “You are right, answers Christiane Taubira. I fight for that, my desire is to create the gathering. »

“We could have saved it from what looks like a way of the cross”

But Christiane Taubira is aware of the iceberg looming ahead. At the last count of the Constitutional Council, Thursday evening, his candidacy only brings together 86 sponsorships. Far, very far from the 500 necessary to be able to be in the race after March 4th. The challenge seems all the greater since the candidate has seen part of the troops leave the ship. Her former party, the Radical Left Party, the only political formation to support her, “withdrew” from her campaign on Monday, acknowledging the failure of the promise of rallying on the left. Even within the popular Primary, which appointed her at the end of January, some are questioning whether or not to maintain their support.

This flash campaign looks more and more like a bad dream for the former minister of François Hollande. His clumsy performance in front of the Abbé Pierre foundation in early February accentuated criticism from his opponents about his lack of preparation. “It’s not good to have encouraged Taubira to go into this mess. She has a status, an aura. We could have preserved it from what looks like a way of the cross, ”stings EELV MEP David Cormand, support of Yannick Jadot.

“I fight, that’s my state of mind”

In the entourage of the candidate, we begin to doubt the future. “I’m not going to tell you that everything is fine, that we are confident about the sponsorships. But it would be a democratic collapse that a candidate with popular legitimacy is not on the starting line, ”explains the former socialist deputy Daniel Goldberg, one of his supporters, who accuses the Socialist Party of having made pressure on elected officials regarding sponsorships.

The person concerned displays her perseverance and answers questions about her probable abandonment. “I fight every day, I’ve been fighting every day for years. This is my state of mind. I do not fight because I am idle and unoccupied. I fight because there is urgency in ecological matters, in matters of social justice and solidarity, urgency in terms of diplomacy. There are a thousand emergencies ahead of us, insists Christiane Taubira. The French are aware of this, they have never stopped fighting in this five-year period which has brutalized them. What am I doing, am I going home? Not long ago, Richard Ferrand derided the left’s “Titanic” campaigns. Even if the ship is taking on water from all sides, Christiane Taubira cannot yet decide to abandon it.

*Esat: Establishments or services providing assistance through work, which offer disabled people various activities of a professional nature and medical, social and educational support with a view to promoting their personal and social development.