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The 2017 Presidential election increasingly resembles a gold rush. Everyone wants to participate in the race, even without any chance not just of winning but simply of featuring, except for a few television appearances.
In this context, the fragmentation of the left persists with a new contribution from the Radical Left Party, the only stable allies of the Socialists during this entire legislature, who have just endorsed former minister Sylvia Pinel.
The president of the PRG in the PACA region (and the Alpes-Maritimes) Patrick Mottard was indeed present at this meeting and commented: “It was a very dense convention because, after discussing the preliminary draft in the morning, it was about deciding on a presidential strategy.”
A significant part of the delegates supported Emmanuel Macron’s candidacy, believing that as a center-left representative, he was capable of avoiding a second round between Fillon and Le Pen.
However, for some, including the Federation of Alpes-Maritimes (a majority of activists had expressed this opinion), this candidacy should go through the primaries organized by the PS to prevent too much dispersion.
This approach was not adopted by the majority of delegates, who feared the logic of the primary: once entered into the process, one is obliged to support the primary winner in the first round of the election, regardless of who it is. And some candidates (Hamon or Montenbourg) do not appeal to them at all!
Thus, it was the choice of Sylvia Pinel based on a direct candidacy.
Patrick Mottard took this decision philosophically: “Given the current state of affairs, there are still many unknowns (Hollande or not Hollande, Valls or not Valls, Taubira or not Taubira, Macron’s electoral breakthrough or not, etc.) and nothing seems set in stone to me.”
