Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s statements on a “possible” end to the Nupes coalition, in the event of a division in the 2024 European elections, sparked protests from his partners on Monday, who denounce the “oukazes” of the rebellious leader.
“It’s possible,” replied the former presidential candidate, when asked by 20 minutes about a possible end to the Nupes if rebellious, environmentalists, socialists and communists did not ally next year – as he would like. .
“If there is no union in the European elections, there won’t be any in the municipal elections either. Why would there be one in the presidential elections?”, he then asked.
Words that sounded Monday like a form of ultimatum or even threat to the ears of its partners. “Nothing justifies killing hope”, reacted Monday the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure.
“The Nupes belongs to the millions of French men and women who want the left and environmentalists to come together. It must grow and expand,” he added.
In a new tweet, Jean-Luc Mélenchon pretended to understand that they were both on the same wavelength, saying to himself “happy to find Olivier Faure in agreement with me for a common Nupes list for Europeans”.
Certainly Olivier Faure is, alongside the rebellious, one of the most fervent defenders of this alliance, which has enabled the left to obtain 151 seats of deputies, including 32 for the PS, despite a calamitous 1.7% for Anne Hidalgo in the presidential election.
Unlike the heads of EELV and the PCF, Mr. Faure says he wants to discuss the possibility of a common list in the European elections of 2024, but by agreeing on a project beforehand.
But it is indeed a pass of arms that took place via social networks on Monday, less than a week after a tense debate between party leaders. Faced with the failure of an agreement in these elections, considered more and more likely, they send the ball of division.
The small sentences rocketed. “Let’s stop the artificial divisions and shopkeepers,” asked LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard. “Enough hypocrisy,” added the rebellious election official Paul Vannier. “Better to avoid having misunderstandings,” retorted PS national secretary Corinne Narassiguin. “Stop the fire”, ended up exclaiming the socialist deputy Jérôme Guedj.
The episode comes to revive the hypothesis of a Jean-Luc Mélenchon tried to abandon the union that he himself initiated in May 2022, he who is reputed to be a follower of homogeneous and operational organizations.
“Jean-Luc is someone who likes to hold two hypotheses in hand”, analyzes the ecologist deputy Aurélien Taché, one of his regular interlocutors. “He has not decided to blow up the Nupes but leads a balance of power”.
He and Manuel Bompard “test, to find out if the Nupes, it’s interesting or if it inflates them”, he adds. The elected representative of Val-d’Oise notes that from the point of view of the candidate who won 22% in the presidential election, “it is also not aberrant that he is banging his fist on the table at the moment” in the face of those who make it the “bad guy”.
Yannick Jadot, former presidential candidate for the Greens, warns on the Regards channel: “The union of the left and environmentalists, in particular for 2027, cannot be subject to the oukazes, the desires, the declarations of Jean-Luc alone Melenchon”. Which he recognizes however that it will be “a structuring element of the suite” on the left.
06/05/2023 19:08:40 – Paris (AFP) – © 2023 AFP
