This is the alliance we didn't see coming. During a debate organized by the newspaper Libération on Wednesday September 2, Dominique de Villepin and François Ruffin noted a good number of convergences in their ideas while they both wish to compete in the presidential election. But how far could this rapprochement go? “I don’t know if you have already prepared the PACS, but let’s say we sniff each other,” declared the deputy for the Somme.
Twenty years ago, such a prospect seemed impossible when Fakir's journalist, a man of the left, marched against the CPE project launched by the Prime Minister of Jacques Chirac. Today, even if it remains surprising, it can be politically clever. “What is interesting is that they are two free men, but who are not copy-pasted,” argues Sophie Taillé-Polian, MP for Val-de-Marne and spokesperson for François Ruffin.
“Of course they are complementary”
Dominique de Villepin, the man who spoke before the United Nations against the war in Iraq in 2003, is very identified with geopolitical questions, which is not the case for François Ruffin. The latter, on the other hand, has a social image that the former tenant of Matignon lacks. Which has never been elected, while Picard has strong local roots. “Of course they are complementary,” continues the spokesperson. “There is, on the one hand, strong governmental and international experience, and, on the other, field experience closest to the concerns of the French.” Raquel Garrido, a former rebellious MP, having like François Ruffin distanced herself from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, followed the debate, which she found "interesting".
“There is naturally a lot of convergence because Villepin is gradually detaching himself from the economic software of the right.”
Raquel Garrido, former LFI deputy
at franceinfo
According to one of the organizers of the debate, it was Dominique de Villepin who was most willing to talk about convergence, while François Ruffin seemed to slow down a little more. “The exchanges were rich and showed points of agreement but also of disagreement, while maintaining honesty and respect”, believe those close to the Somme MP, “very happy to have been able to organize this debate”. It had been prepared with the teams of the two candidates, and facilitated by common knowledge. The idea was to make an impression. “It was successful beyond our expectations,” comments Dominique de Villepin’s entourage.
Because this rapprochement is also a way to get people talking about them and their ambitions. François Ruffin has been preparing for the presidential election for several years, with the project of reconciling "the France of the towns and the France of the towers". His ambition was to run in the left-wing primary, which was nipped in the bud by the refusal of the PS to participate. He maintained his candidacy but struggled to exist in the campaign. "Yesterday's sequence shows that François Ruffin is still in the competition. In the left-wing unity movement, there is only him, Marine Tondelier and Olivier Faure. The situation is not at all crystallized and they are right to stay in action", judges Raquel Garrido.
“A desire to break with the policy pursued today”
For his part, since the spring, Dominique de Villepin has regularly appeared in the media to promote his desire to be a candidate, without taking the step of an official declaration, leaving doubt about his desire or his ability to go through with it. “We are arriving at a moment in our history where we must move forward without calculation,” he said during the debate, saying he was ready to “sacrifice all his ambitions”.
Can we then imagine a withdrawal of one for the benefit of the other? “They are certainly complementary, but the gathering must be much broader than their two people”, comments Sophie Taillé-Polian, who calls for “a league of derailers”, using the expression used by François Ruffin during the debate. For him, it is a question of derailing "the crazy train" which would lead to a second round between Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen, or even to the election of the far-right figure. The president of the think tank The Shift Project, Jean-Marc Jancovici, the journalist Natacha Polony and the director of Oxfam France, Cécile Duflot, are mentioned to join this league. “I really appreciated this debate,” comments soberly the former boss of environmentalists, contacted by franceinfo.
François Ruffin's spokesperson sets the rules for this not yet legendary league: "A demand for clarity vis-à-vis the National Rally and a desire to break with the policy pursued today." “Villepin ticks both boxes,” she adds. “There is a shared diagnosis, there is a common horizon,” summarized François Ruffin. New joint initiatives are being studied for the coming weeks. “We now need others to join in the dance,” hope those close to François Ruffin. “At the start of the school year, this is the first original moment of this campaign. We must not let the dust settle,” explains Dominique de Villepin’s entourage.
