“We cannot give the feeling of encouraging and accepting violence”: the urban riots bring to light the differences within Nupes, where even the boss of the PS Olivier Faure does not hide his “deep disagreement” with Jean-Luc Melenchon.
Invited to the summer days of the minority current of the PS “Stand up the socialists”, fiercely opposed to Nupes and LFI, Olivier Faure however defended the alliance with LFI. But he affirmed his difference on the way of approaching the riots which have shaken the country for four nights after the death of young Nahel, killed by a police officer during a traffic check.
While La France insoumise is accused of not condemning the violence sufficiently strongly, the First Secretary believes that the PS is “right to call for calm and a return to civil peace”. “We don’t have to encourage abuses on businesses and public property.”
He was questioned in particular by the former MP Patrick Mennucci, who believes that the PS cannot continue the Nupes alliance: “We have the feeling that LFI missed the blow of the revolution with the yellow vests, with the pensions, and they say to themselves, we are going to bring about the convergence of struggles with the neighborhoods”.
But for Olivier Faure, we must continue to speak with Jean-Luc Mélenchon “even in times of deep disagreement, and the current moment is a moment of deep disagreement”.
“I don’t think we’ve crossed the Republican barrier” with the line held by LFI, he then told the press. “I am both really in favor of a unitary approach” within Nupes, “but that does not force me to be aligned” with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, he added, lamenting being constantly forced to define himself in relation to the rebellious tribune. “No need to hit the neighbor to say what we are”.
A message far from being heard by the audience, where the First Secretary was not on conquered ground.
In a hotel in the center of Lyon, his internal opponent Hélène Geoffroy, president of “Debout lesSocialistes” and mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin, invited the entire anti-LFI fringe of the PS, including François Hollande, who intervenes on Sunday, and Bernard Cazeneuve, who left the party after the Nupes agreement.
Olivier Faure’s main rival, Deputy First Secretary Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, Mayor of Rouen, finally gave up the trip, due to urban violence in his town, like many other participants, often local elected officials.
For Hélène Geoffroy, this is an opportunity to say with one voice “that the PS is attached to the rule of law” and that the “major subject is the call for calm, and then we analyze the causes” of the riots.
The former Minister of the City under François Hollande believes that Jean-Luc Mélenchon “has words disconnected from reality”. “He essentializes the people of the suburbs and wants them to carry messages that they do not carry. When I announce that I have police reinforcements, the inhabitants are reassured”, she underlines.
For Rachid Temal, senator from Val d’Oise, “Jean-Luc Mélenchon gives the feeling that people from the suburbs condone violence, it’s false” and “he is not the spokesperson for the suburbs”.
The leader of the Insoumis “has fallen back into Trotskyist logic” and “pushes an insurrectionary movement”, condemns Philippe Doucet, ex-mayor of Argenteuil.
Even the last words of the rebellious leader are subject to caution: in a video on Friday, he assured that “never the rebellious were for violence”, and called “especially the youngest” to “not touch” schools or libraries.
“What does that mean, that everything else can be burned?” asked Bernard Cazeneuve. For the former Prime Minister, “when there is such a level of violence, one cannot fail to call for calm, on the grounds that the revolt is beautiful”.
The boss of the PCF, Fabien Roussel, also admitted on Saturday on franceinfo to have “a different speech” from Jean-Luc Mélenchon”. “Our responsibility is to call for calm, for appeasement”, a-t- he pleaded, while acknowledging that it was “difficult to be heard”: “We are all a little helpless”.
01/07/2023 20:30:35 – Lyon (AFP) © 2023 AFP
