“We screwed up, we’re sorry. » The popular Primary engaged, in a video broadcast on Wednesday March 16, in a delicate exercise, aiming at the same time to ask « pardon » to the voters she disappointed and to justify her choice of March 5 to support Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the presidential election. Yet it was Yannick Jadot who came second in the January 30 consultation, behind Christiane Taubira. It might seem logical, after the withdrawal of the latter, that the support of the popular Primary goes to the ecologist candidate, and not to that of La France insoumise. This choice had immediately rocked the popular Primary and caused defections.
Explanation, according to one of the voices of the ten speakers who speak in this video, without identifying themselves: after the withdrawal of Christiane Taubira, the question was no longer ” to assemble ” the left around ecological and social values – which was the founding project of the whole process – but “knowing who was most likely to win to bring our ideas to power”. It is, according to the Popular Primary, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who has the merit of proposing a VIe Republic, “essential step to change the system”and create a “gathering dynamics”. The video does not say so explicitly, but this opinion is probably based on the polls, which regularly place the LFI candidate ahead of his left-wing rivals, and in particular Mr. Jadot.
Returning to the failure of Christiane Taubira, despite her large victory in the non-party consultation of January 30, in which nearly 400,000 people took part, they estimate that “the parties had decided to block this rally until the end” – perhaps pretending to forget that it is also because she failed to convince 500 elected officials to give her their sponsorship that Mme Taubira was forced to give up. It remains true that none of his competitors on the left had responded favorably to his calls for union, refusing to submit to the verdict of a ballot in which they appeared against their will, chosen by a previous consultation of citizens.
“Deadly rights”
From there, according to the people speaking in this video, the options were: “Support a candidacy, redo a consultation, continue to promote our ideas without a candidate, stop there and meet people after the election. » The hypothesis of a new vote was quickly ruled out, because it represented “days of preparation”from “hundreds of thousands of euros” and news “criticism and attempts at destabilization”.
For “Do not abandon this election to the deadly right”, it is therefore the support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon who won. It will materialize through the new structure, Popular Victory, ” independently “ to his campaign team. Wise precision, because the candidate LFI said worse than to hang, for months, of the whole process of the popular Primary, even if some in his camp were delighted by this rallying. Including his campaign manager, Manuel Bompard, who, on Twitterhad wished the “welcome to those who want to take their part in this battle until victory”.
“We take note of the end” of the Popular Primary, conclude the speakers of this video, who say they have been “clumsy, naive, reckless”and take the measure “for all that we have provoked and the expectations that we have disappointed”. “To those who felt betrayed, we sincerely ask for forgiveness”they assure, without despairing of “quickly rebuild this bond of trust which has allowed us to act together in joy and militant efficiency”.