Pierre de Saintignon

[9] In this context, an experiment was launched by the Nord Littoral [fr] newspaper[10] in order to measure if the candidate was sufficiently well known to deserve an entry in the French Wikipedia.

Preferring to finally withdraw due to poor results in the first round, Pierre de Saintignon was forced to play only the role of an unofficial advisor to the Haut-de-France region's president.

Notable members of the family were Fernand de Saintignon (1846–1921), ironmaster at Longwy, and Pierre Amidieu du Clos (1881–1955), deputy and mayor of Longwy.[6][relevant?]

[1] While living in Paris in 1967, de Sainignon joined the French Section of the Workers' International (SFIO) two years before it was replaced by the Socialist Party (PS).

[a] The same year, he entered Inserm (the French Institute of Health and Medical Research, or more precisely the National Technical Centre for Impaired Childhood and Adolescence or CTNEAI).

[1] In 1977, he moved from Paris to Lille, in French Flanders, to become the administrative director of the Sauvegarde du Nord, an association that supported young people facing adversities.

[3] In addition, de Saintignon was member of the staff of several ministers, such as with Michel Delebarre for the Revenu minimum d'insertion (social welfare) in 1988, and with Martine Aubry, then Ministre du Travail, in 1991.

This was described as a gambit:[7] an able leader who was relatively unknown to the public[13] to create distance from the low popularity of French President François Hollande and the government's policy.

While the other second-round lists in the North–Pas-de-Calais–Picardy region were headed by the top mediatic leaders of their respective parties, de Saintignon was sometimes described as the "Inconnu du Nord" (English: the unknown of the north).

[16][c] In a press conference held on 23 September 2015, Martine Aubry confirmed the choice of de Saintignon, and that the poor poll results were due to a PS minister's behaviour, stating, "Macron?

"[17] Backing Emmanuel Macron (appointed 2014 as Minister of Economy), the French Premier likened de Saintignon to a casting error, due to a lack of notoriety.

[9] During a France Info broadcast, an interviewer asked if the lack of a French Wikipedia entry for Pierre de Saintignon could be held as an objective measure of a low notoriety.