On June 30 and July 7, the former Minister of Transport and Anne Hidalgo’s current first deputy at Paris City Hall will compete for the 7th constituency which will be one of the most scrutinized in the capital on Sunday evening of the first round.
In the middle of towing on the Popincourt market (11th arrondissement of Paris) this Friday, June 21, Clément Beaune and Emmanuel Grégoire shake hands. The two candidates met at Matignon, during the time of Jean-Marc Ayrault, and have since taken opposite paths.
However, both are playing out their political future in Paris, around the Place de la Bastille. The Macronist Clément Beaune and the socialist Emmanuel Grégoire, opponents for a seat at the Bourbon Palace, must disentangle themselves from the contradictions of their own camp.
A first duel… before 2026?
The constituency, in the heart of Paris, straddles the 4th, 11th and 12 arrondissements. It is being scrutinized because both candidates have ambitions for Paris town hall. Even if they assure it: the time is not 2026.
“The moment is too serious to think about the future,” assures Clément Beaune at the microphone of BFM Paris Île-de-France.
“I always said that I was committed to Paris, that I will make my decisions on the future later. But today, we have a danger from the National Rally. And faced with the RN, the response cannot be “, we know, especially in Paris, the compromise with a rebellious France which is not clear on anti-Semitism, which is not clear on respect for republican institutions”, assures the outgoing Renaissance deputy.
“No, that’s absolutely not the subject,” adds the socialist Emmanuel Grégoire.
“And I did not initially want to be a candidate in the legislative elections in my political life. I have a passion, it is Paris. My commitment is Paris. But we simply have to understand what happened , both by the very high score resulting from the RN’s European elections, and especially the dissolution which puts the extreme right at the gates of power”, explains the first deputy of the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo.
“The Parisian backpacker’s guide”
For Emmanuel Grégoire, his commitment to this campaign is “a moral duty, a political duty to come together to propose another path for the country”.
“The municipal elections are far away. The RN is tomorrow and all my energy today is there to protect my country,” said the elected official. “It is there to protect the interests of Parisians, to protect the interests also of the institutions which will be counter-powers if the RN comes to power and in particular the city of Paris which I know, you know it intimately”, explains Emmanuel Grégoire at the microphone of BFM Paris Île-de-France.
As for his future on the Paris Council, he assures that he will continue to sit there even if he is elected as a deputy. “I should leave my position as first deputy if I am elected, since it is a legal incompatibility and it is normal, we cannot do things correctly with such accumulations”, he specifies while he announced last week that he would return his delegations to the mayor of Paris to lead the campaign.
Clément Beaune, the outgoing Renaissance deputy, figure of the left wing of the macronie, was minister in charge of Europe, then of Transport for Emmanuel Macron. In January, he left the government after the resignation of Prime Minister Elisabeth Borne, a few weeks after the vote on the immigration law to which he had opposed.
During the second round of the 2022 legislative elections, Clément Beaune narrowly won with 658 votes ahead of candidate (LFI-Nupes) Caroline Mecary.
“I’m here to win, to continue. But I know difficult electoral battles. I experienced it in 2022 and those who think with a little arrogance that people have already made their choice when they don’t “have not voted, not put a single ballot in the box, it will be June 30”, nuance the former minister who also criticizes Emmanuel Grégoire for making “the Parisian backpacker’s guide”.
“The Socialist Party has strong historical roots”
This candidacy, as a representative of the New Popular Front, can be seen as a way for Emmanuel Grégoire to gain notoriety and gain independence by defending his own convictions to Parisians. “Now that he no longer gets along with Anne Hidalgo, he is looking for an escape,” summarizes Clément Beaune, his opponent.
Especially since according to the results of the European elections, it is the socialist who could win. If he combines the scores of the left: he would have 57.8% of the votes.
“The Socialist Party has strong historical roots. Patrick Bloche was a member of parliament for a very long time and I am very close to it. I was his deputy in 2017 in this constituency and so yes, it seemed more logical to us than in this agreement of the New Popular Front”, declared Emmanuel Grégoire at the microphone of BFM Paris Île-de-France.
Project versus project
On the program side, the two candidates made several proposals. Firstly political for Clément Beaune who wants a “proportional voting method for future elections” and for it to be “more democratic”. But also economical with proposals for purchasing power such as social leasing for “clean and affordable” electric vehicles, for commuters, for Parisians who need public transport but who also need a clean, affordable car “I try to be both concrete and down to earth,” said the former minister.
“There are four priority areas of action in the one that I want to lead personally,” assures, for his part, Emmanuel Grégoire with public schools, health, housing and action in favor of single-parent families.
“It’s been a personal fight for a very long time. It’s in favor of single-parent families, single-parent women. It’s a new social reality that has been poorly thought out by our country, we need to do much more to help single-parent families who are very often women in sole custody of children and who find themselves in an immense difficulty”, continues the latter.
Among the nine candidates in the constituency, the spokesperson for the Changer Paris group Aurélien Véron for the Republicans and Nouvelle Énergie and Céline Tacher for the National Rally are also aligned against them.
Nicolas Dumas and Alixan Lavorel with AFP
