Agresti-Roubache, born to a family with Algerian roots, led with the heart, describing how concerns over the snap parliamentary election results had left her elderly mother "in tears" daily. When the tactic proved futile, she changed tack. "When you don't have power, you can say whatever people want to hear," said Agresti-Roubache.
It was a hint of the kinds of conversations that are playing out across the country as the centrist alliance of Emmanuel Macron, the French president, makes a lastditch effort to shore up votes before elections which the far right is expected to win.
Minutes earlier, AgrestiRoubache had addressed a boisterous crowd of 300 people packed into a small room adjacent to the church. Much of her message, seemingly tailored to the city's diverse roots, was aimed at the far-right National Rally (RN), hinting at the party's commanding lead in the polls.
"We are all children of immigrants," she said. "And if, when our parents arrived in France, the National Rally had had the numbers they have now, none of you would be French. Me neither."
In keeping with the centrist line that has sought to portray this election as a battle of extremes, she proffered a few lines that took aim at members of the leftwing New Popular Front (NFP) coalition, attacking them for brandishing the Palestinian flag in parliament.
It was a toned-down message compared with that of Macron, who this week said that France risked being plunged into a "civil war" if either of his "extreme" opponents won a majority. Polls suggest that his message was largely ineffective, as his three-way alliance continues to trail behind the RN and the NFP.
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