Woman in Politics . . .
The Socialist Party (PS) faced a dilemma at the approach of the presidential elections of 2022. Benoît Hamon, the most recent candidate, had left the party in 2017 after getting only 6% of the vote in the first round. Bernard Cazeneuve, Minister of the Interior during the terrorist attacks of 2015 and 2016 and the last prime minister of François Hollande’s term, decided not to run. Olivier Faure, the head of the Socialist Party, apparently feared that he might not be able to run a Socialist candidacy without an alliance. He approached the Ecologist (EELV) chair, Julien Bayou, who was interested but suggested that the joint candidate should be an écolo, which Faure could not accept. According to an anonymous source within the party leadership, “Faure’s idea had never been to give the keys of the house to the écolos. But no longer having the possibility of concluding an accord with whoever, [and] given Bayou’s refusal, he had to find a candidate.”[1]
Anne Hidalgo had just won an impressive second six-year term as Mayor of Paris, beating Agnès Buzyn, the Macronist candidate, and Rachida Dati of Les Républicains. In the summer of 2021, she was putting out feelers to indicate her potential interest in a presidential run. At the université d’été (summer conference) on August 27, 2021, Hidalgo had been applauded. At the party conference in Rouen on 12 September 2021, she stated that she was “ready.” Olivier Faure promised “a campaign like we have not seen for a long time,” and–because Hidalgo was reluctant to have any kind of primary vote, or debate, even among the party conference goers–managed to get an “investiture” vote by acclamation. [2]The Socialist party had talked itself into Hidalgo, “the oldest, in the highest position,” according to another anonymous party member, who also noted that the activists of the party were relieved to have any candidate.[3]
But not enthusiastic, and that lack of enthusiasm seemed to begin at home. Jean-Marc Germain, a PS apparatchik and Hidalgo’s husband, later stated that “there was no longer anyone in the PS to bear our colors.” (Though in fairness, he seemed to be trying to defend her eventual poor showing in the election)[4]. Worse still, their son Arthur Germain, a 20-year-old self-styled “adventurer,” later admitted that he had voted for far-Left Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the first round instead of his mother, and did not even have the decency to claim that it was a “useful” vote (that is, a vote not out of preference but in favor of the candidate most likely to get into the second round). Arthur had thought that Mélenchon’s plan to dissolve the Fifth Republic and start a more populist Sixth sounded interesting, but he didn’t really care and admitted he wasn’t all that enthusiastic about Mélenchon either. He hadn’t bothered to vote in the second round.[5]
Hidalgo’s campaign did not start well. She began by writing her own speeches, before she finally, in January, appointed Hollande’s speechwriter Laurent Joffrin. Her first campaign promise, the doubling of teachers’ salaries, was widely panned by all sides, as “populist” (Rachida Dati), “the summit of demagoguery” (Jean-Michel Blanquer, Macron’s Minister of Education), and unaffordable, by both left and right.[6].
She issued her party platform on January 13, the day of a teachers’ strike in Paris. Her advisors warned her that her platform news would be overshadowed, but she announced that she would go to the strike, apparently in an attempt to mend fences; some of the teachers, angry about covid restrictions, booed her.[7]. Her platform, in the style of French presidential campaigns, had an absurdly high number of propositions (70, no doubt eliciting many tl;dr); but she had several propositions that she could have, should have, hit hard: raising the minimum wage (SMIC); legislating against absurdly high executive compensation, which had added to growing inequality; keeping the age of retirement as it was; her environmental policies and proven record in Paris; and an unflinching determination to preserve the European Union and alliances (and here is where she especially differed from Mélenchon and Le Pen). She needed to hit these points hard and keep the rest on paper; and she did try, though she often was distracted by events beyond her control–the EELV primary and the “Popular Primary” especially during the late fall and winter, when she should have been able to establish a distinct identity.
First, the EELV presidential primary, which ended on October 14, after a flurry of coverage. Hidalgo and her advisors made an early mistake, in assuming that the radical EELV candidate, Éric Piolle, the mayor of Grenoble, would be the winner; she could then call upon the “moderate” EELV vote. Instead the voters selected the moderate (and well-known) Yannick Jadot.[8] Hidalgo and her advisors wanted an alliance with Jadot, but, said one of her circle, “we could not find the right person to go speak to Jadot.” And Jadot made no approach to her. Finally, as her numbers were dropping, on December 8, 2021, she was on a train to La Rochelle for a campaign stop–which she abruptly canceled, returning to Paris for an interview on TF1. The drama of this action led to rumors that she would drop out of the race. Instead she challenged Jadot to a direct run-off with her, intending to step down if she lost. (She had issued the challenge without asking the advice of her headquarters, simply informing them that “I decided.”) Her December 8 announcement, on television and twitter, was that she wished to reunite the divided left. One disgruntled socialist noted that she had apparently not realized that such a primary might leave the Socialist Party without a candidate,[9] though clearly she did. But why continue the futile, unattended rallies, the declining media attention? She needed something dramatic, beyond rearranging the deck chairs of her campaign (which she also did). Yet Jabot was the last person of whom to make such a request. Winner of his party’s primary in 2017, he had unified behind the Socialist candidate Benoît Hamon, who had managed only about 6%, taking down both parties; Jabot would not do that again.
In the meantime, two young people outside of the political hierarchy organized a “popular primary,” to be conducted online, releasing a somewhat arbitrary list of candidates that included Hidalgo, Jadot, and Mélenchon–all of whom declined to be part of it–some unknowns, and former Justice Minister Christiane Taubira, who eventually won and briefly attempted a presidential campaign. (See the earlier post, https://jharsin.colgate.domains/blog/uncategorized/campaign-chronicles-the-peoples-primary/)
The press paid an absurd amount of attention to this amateur event, and ultimately the loser was Hidalgo–both in the primary itself and in the fallout from it. For, according to the everpresent unnamed sources, there was a very contentious meeting at the national Socialist Party headquarters on January 11, during which Faure and his top associates had supposedly stated that they would abide by the results of the popular primary–which Faure immediately denied; another anonymous source close to Faure stated that the leak came from a small fringe within the socialist party who wanted to “destabilize” the head of the party. But the damage was done: there was now an impression that the socialists, including Faure, wanted to get rid of her; some even felt that losing the popular primary would be a graceful way out.[10]. Despite the denials, the anonymous sources were apparently correct. When Christiane Taubira won the popular primary, Faure suggested–over the phone–that Hidalgo step down in her favor. That angry call was followed by an even worse call with Taubira, according to an unnamed socialist: “That went very badly. Taubira was peremptory as she knows how to be, and Hidalgo doubled down out of pride. . . . A dialogue of the deaf.”[11]. And as her poll numbers remained stagnant or fell, many wondered, according to Marianne, why she did not quit, and one stated that she was “in denial”; her deputy campaign manager, Senator Patrick Kanner, assured the team that there was a “hidden vote” for Hidalgo.[12]
To be continued: Hollande steps in.
Header image: Photo 244555593 / Anne Hidalgo © Neydtstock | Dreamstime.com
[1] Hadrien Brachet, “‘Elle est dans un grand déni’: dans les coulisses de la campagne d’Anne Hidalgo,” Marianne, March 28, 2022. https://www.marianne.net/politique/gauche/elle-est-dans-un-grand-deni-dans-les-coulisses-de-la-campagne-danne-hidalgo
[2] Laurent Valdiguié, “Anne Hidalgo est de retour . . . et elle est très, très énervée!” Marianne, May 28, 2022. https://www.marianne.net/politique/gauche/anne-hidalgo-est-de-retour-et-elle-est-tres-tres-enervee?utm_source=nl_weekend&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=20220529&xtor=EPR-2&_ope=eyJndWlkIjoiODFhNjM3ZmI3NTRhNjE0MTcwNTBlNWE5ODc1NmE3Y2MifQ%3D%3D
[3] Hadrien Brachet, “‘Elle est dans un grand déni’: dans les coulisses de la campagne d’Anne Hidalgo,” Marianne, March 28, 2022.
[4] Laurent Valdiguié, “Anne Hidalgo est de retour . . . et elle est très, très énervée!” Marianne, May 28, 2022.
[5] Marie Terrier, “Arthur Germain, le fils d’Anne Hidalgo, confirm qu’il n’a pas voté pour sa mère,” Le Huffpost, April 25, 2022. https://www.huffingtonpost.fr/politique/article/arthur-germain-le-fils-d-anne-hidalgo-confirme-qu-il-n-a-pas-vote-pour-sa-mere_195755.html
[6] Hadrien Brachet, “‘Elle est dans un grand déni’: dans les coulisses de la campagne d’Anne Hidalgo,” Marianne, March 28, 2022.
[7] “Grève des enseignants: Anne Hidalgo chahutée dans la manifestation parisienne,” Franceinfo, January 13, 2022. https://www.francetvinfo.fr/politique/anne-hidalgo/greve-des-enseignants-anne-hidalgo-chahutee-dans-la-manifestation-parisienne_4915503.html; see also Camille Romano, “Pierre Jouvet, porte parole du PS: ‘De fait, il n’y aura pas de primaire,’” Le Journal du Dimanche, January 12, 2022. https://www.lejdd.fr/Politique/pierre-jouvet-porte-parole-du-ps-de-fait-il-ny-aura-pas-de-primaire-4087513
[8] Laurent Valdiguié, “Anne Hidalgo est de retour . . . et elle est très, très énervée!” Marianne, May 28, 2022.
[9] Hadrien Brachet, “‘Elle est dans un grand déni’: dans les coulisses de la campagne d’Anne Hidalgo,” Marianne, March 28, 2022.
[10] Hadrien Brachet, “‘Elle est dans un grand déni’: dans les coulisses de la campagne d’Anne Hidalgo,” Marianne, March 28, 2022.
[11] Laurent Valdiguié, “Anne Hidalgo est de retour . . . et elle est très, très énervée!” Marianne, May 28, 2022.
[12] Hadrien Brachet, “‘Elle est dans un grand déni’: dans les coulisses de la campagne d’Anne Hidalgo,” Marianne, March 28, 2022.
