France: Anne Hidalgo is elected socialist candidate for the 2022 presidential elections

The Socialist Party French this Thursday gave its unanimous support to the Parisian mayor, Anne Hidalgo, to be his candidate in the presidential elections of April 2022, in which the polls predict little chance of victory.

The 208 sponsorships received, compared to 34 from his only opponent, the former Minister of Agriculture and current Le Mans councilor, Stéphane Le Foll, anticipated that there would be no surprises in the open vote from 5:00 p.m. to 10:00 p.m. local time.

The provisional figures for this scrutiny reserved for the militants were clear: with a recount of 90%, Hidalgo won “more than 72%” of the votes, the first secretary of the formation, Olivier Faure, told the press.

“I am particularly proud and honored to defend our party’s colors. They are the colors of a left that assumes the exercise of power, of a government left that will never be satisfied simply with being indignant or protesting, but wants to act in a concrete way, “said the already candidate.

In its ordinary congress in mid-September, the PS, through Faure, had already endorsed her, without naming her, giving support to emblematic proposals launched since Hidalgo announced his candidacy that same month, such as the intention to double the salary of the teachers.

LONG ROAD AHEAD

Tonight the PS leader admitted that the pending path will be complicated.

“We all know here that no one wants our victory (…) We know your ability, strength, courage and determination. Hard work awaits you. You can be sure that we are going to accompany you ”, she told him.

Le Foll had maintained his candidacy despite being aware that luck was not in his favor. “I am a more than marginal candidate. Sometimes it takes a lot of perseverance to come into existence in a political debate ”, he had affirmed this week, claiming to feel despised for his training.

The PS now puts its machinery at the service of Hidalgo and seeks union with other left-wing forces, in particular with the environmentalists, who on September 28 elected MEP Yannick Jadot as a candidate.

His official inauguration will take place on October 23 in Lille, the fiefdom of his political mentor, Martine Aubry, with a convention that will call for collective mobilization half a year after those elections.

On the way to the presidential elections, he already has confirmed opponents of the far-right Marine Le Pen or the leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The conservatives will elect their representative in an internal congress, and the current president, Emmanuel Macron, has not advanced his intentions.

The irruption of the writer and essayist Éric Zemmour, omnipresent in the French pre-campaign despite not having taken the step, is another possible obstacle in the presidential ambition of Hidalgo, 62 years old and a native of San Fernando (Spain).

LITTLE CITIZEN SUPPORT

The polls attribute to Hidalgo less than 10% of the voting intentions, well below the 24% achieved by Macron, according to a survey by the Ifop demographic institute this week, or the 22% of Le Pen, which would thus go to the second round.

Their chances are also reduced by the traditional fragmentation of the left vote between socialists, environmentalists and the populist formation La Francia Insoumisa, de Mélenchon, and by an electorate heeled to the right, with immigration as a key factor in these elections.

This Thursday was just the beginning. “Tonight begins throughout France a campaign that unites all the socialist militant forces,” said Hidalgo in the Parisian bar L’Office, to which he had summoned the press to offer his first statements after the count.

The presidential candidate was elected councilor of Paris in 2001 and has been mayor of the French capital since 2014. In 2020 she renewed her mandate under the umbrella of the “Paris en commun” platform, a citizen alliance, in her words, which brought together politicians from various sensitivities, from communists to environmentalists.