Frangy-en-Bresse, its 600 souls and its Rose Festival. Created by Pierre Joxe in the 1970s, the annual gathering had become the showcase of Arnaud Montebourg in Saône-et-Loire, before experiencing a period of low water. Last year, against the backdrop of a health crisis, the party overlooked the traditional Bresse chicken, and the guest’s speech, Bernard Cazeneuve, was delivered to a very modest audience.
In 2021, candidacy for the presidential election requires everyone, from volunteers to those around Arnaud Montebourg, assures that there are people. Some 450 plates, a thousand people standing, we are told, even if it is difficult, visually, to count so many. Whatever, “Welcome to the field of dreams”, announces the local socialist deputy Cécile Untermaier on the stage installed in the middle of the municipal sports field. During the candidate’s handshakes, there are “Arnaud! “ fuse, activists happy to see him again, and to hear his “Ladies, well honor”.
Since he declared himself a candidate for the presidential election, on September 4 in Clamecy, with the slogan the “Remountada” from France, Arnaud Montebourg notably campaigned in TER. To this France far from the metropolises, he said on Saturday: “2022 is the time for reparation, the time to wash away the affront to the popular classes. “
But for those who expected a presidential program this weekend, it was missed. No, this Saturday was “An increased Clamecy, to take this founding speech a little further”, summarized François Cocq, ex- “rebellious” became one of the spokespersons of Mr. Montebourg. With Manon Lebreton and a few others, he is one of those former LFI who joined the former minister, alongside elected socialists mainly from the Senate (Laurence Rossignol, Jérôme Durain, Mickaël Vallet among others). “It is the republican line of LFI, which was cast in 2018-2019”, added Mr. Cocq on the spot.
A beginning of “shudder”
In the candidate’s teams, a recent Odoxa poll placing Arnaud Montebourg at the same level as Anne Hidalgo – around 4% to 5% – helps to believe in the beginning of “Thrill”. ” Yes [la maire de Paris] does less than him in the polls, she must join him and withdraw “, estimated a Marseille activist, Meriem Cheriet.
Arnaud Montebourg, he did not speak explicitly of Anne Hidalgo, but specified certain axes, on ecology for example, by advocating the end of oil by 2040 and an annual decrease in its consumption of 5%, going hand in hand. with a reindustrialisation, or rather a “Made in France XXL”. He hammered home some sovereign convictions, secularism, the fight against political Islamism, but also the fight against the “Televangelist” Zemmour and his extremism. The former minister also developed his European position, in a spade at LFI: “I prefer that we take back the hand with a smile, no plan A, no plan B, no plan C”, he said, proposing that Parliament “Sets a mandate in advance for the government and the president in each European agreement” and, “Expressing in the last resort national sovereignty”, it can correct the European law which underlies the national laws.
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