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dissident Villani refuses to give in to pressure from Macron


Cédric Villani in Paris, October 8, 2019. LUDOVIC MARIN / AFP

A real break. The meeting between Emmanuel Macron and Cédric Villani, Sunday, January 26, did not allow the hoped for pacification, far from it. The President of the Republic had asked the math star to come see him in the hope of stopping the fratricidal war between the Parisian macronists. But Cédric Villani came out of the Elysée Palace as he entered it: determined to maintain his dissident candidacy for the Town Hall of Paris. Despite presidential pressure, there is no question of rallying to Benjamin Griveaux, the candidate invested by La République en Marche (LRM).

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On the contrary, just after the meeting, the scientist made a shocking statement. “Today, I act a major divergence, he said. Between belonging to a political apparatus and the commitment to the city that made me, I choose to remain loyal to Parisians by maintaining my candidacy freely. ” Quit, therefore, having to leave his party in one way or another.

“We suspected that he would not give up being a candidate, but we did not expect such a declaration, on the surface, a kind of gigantic arms of honor made to the president”, comments a regular at the Elysée Palace.

Threat of dissent

The consequences of this gesture risk going beyond the borders of Paris. In the National Assembly, will Cédric Villani remain a member of the LRM group, or abandon him, as a dozen deputies have already done so since 2017 ? If he leaves on his own or is excluded, can he be followed by other elected officials? In the majority, some people already fear the appearance of ” rebels “, like those who had disrupted the quinquennium of François Hollande.

For a long time, Emmanuel Macron let the quarrel between Benjamin Griveaux and Cédric Villani arise without really intervening. During the summer, when, after being dismissed by the investiture committee, the man in the lavallière raised the threat of dissent, he did not try to dissuade him by proposing for example a minister’s seat. Then, when the threat was carried out, the head of state took care not to clearly support Benjamin Griveaux or Cédric Villani. May the best win !

In recent weeks, Emmanuel Macron has however realized that the war between his two deputies led to a resounding failure. A survey carried out from January 14 to 23 by Odoxa and published Sunday by Le Figaro confirms this: even though more than 60% of Parisians do not want Anne Hidalgo to be re-elected, she is likely to be re-elected, due to the rivalries between her opponents, starting with those of LRM.

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