Presidential 2022. In Toulouse, like an air of Waterloo for the socialists and the republicans
By Anthony Assemat
Published on
Difficult evening for traditional parties. Sunday April 10, 2022, on the occasion of the first round of the presidential election, it was plain gloomy atmosphere in the Socialist Party and among the Republicans. And not even a plain at all at LR since the supporters of Valérie Pécresse had not planned any militant meeting to follow the election evening.
Door closed at the headquarters of the Republicans
The door of the headquarters of the Republicans of Haute-Garonne, place Jean-Jaurès, was therefore closed this Sunday evening. “For Valérie Pécresse, the decisive and negative turning point was the meeting of the Zénith”, reacted despite everything Pierre Espuglas, departmental referent of the LR candidate in Haute-Garonne.
He dragged our campaign into a negative spiral that was not reversed. We did not know how to go up the slide… For LR, which has a very low score but which has a large network of local elected officials, the same problem now arises as that posed to the Socialist Party. “.
At the PS, the striking contrast with 2012
At the PS, precisely, the premises of the Departmental Federation, rue Lancefoc, not far from Compans-Caffarelli, were open to them but an air of Waterloo reigned in the ranks. Here, in front of the eternal demanding gaze of Jean Jaurès, the atmosphere was quite different ten years ago, when François Hollande acceded to the Elysée, in May 2012. The room was full, the atmosphere was warm, caciques and activists arm in arm, tears in their eyes, the rose brandished as a standard.
Ten years have passed and about twenty militants, at most, gathered around local PS figures such as the senator Claude Raynal or the president of the Departmental Council of Haute-Garonne Georges Meric, to ward off the 1.7% of their champion Anne Hidalgo. Behind Yannick Jadot, Fabien Roussel and even Jean Lassalle… “I don’t understand why we are still well anchored locally but that we don’t print nationally. Perhaps we had a problem of representation, ”laments this activist.
Georges Méric: “I call to vote Emmanuel Macron”
The finding was terrible for Georges Méric, the boss of the Department. “It’s a difficult and sad evening for the left to do and the PS”, regrets the departmental councilor of Nailloux.
“In the second round, I call for a blockade of the National Front. It is a danger for the Republic. We cannot accept that a head of state is a friend of Putin. I therefore call for Emmanuel Macron to vote. »
And to top it off moose horribilisit was the outgoing president who came out on top in his stronghold, just ahead of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“Jean-Luc Mélenchon is the main divider on the left”
In the midst of this heavy silence at the PS, Georges Méric, also critical of his own – “we haven’t worked enough in the last 20 years” – still wants to take the next step. “In the legislative elections, the score will probably not be the same as for the presidential election. Constituencies will be accessible for this left to do “, wants to believe the experienced Georges Méric, convinced that the local climate will favor the PS, always very well deployed in Haute-Garonne and Occitania over the past five years.
Georges Méric ends on a critical note towards the Insoumis and Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “The main divider on the left is him. He stumbled again on the way to the second lap, it was also a failure for him”.
Not sure that it helps, in the immediate future, to find the summits after this dull plain evening.
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