At a time when La France insoumise (LFI) locks its communication around the Quatennens affair, few are the “insubordinates” to risk themselves outside the borders of the movement. There is François Ruffin, in the process of alienating the heart of the Melenchonist apparatus, with his declarations of love for social democracy. And the deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis, Clémentine Autain, who, while displaying her loyalty to the movement, allows herself, as usual, to step aside. The one who recently assumed “to have ambition” for the presidential election of 2027 took part in a debate on the theme of ecosocialism, Wednesday, November 30, in the hall of La Bellevilloise, in Paris, with Paul Magnette, the president of the Belgian Socialist Party.
Ecosocialism, the word is fashionable. Olivier Faure estimated, on Saturday, in an interview with Monde what “Ecological socialism is the answer to major disruptions”. The term would have almost become mainstream, far from its revolutionary origins, when the philosopher André Gorz theorized the junction of ecology and anti-capitalism. For a long time, Jean-Luc Mélenchon had made it an element of speech. In 2012, the Left Party had organized the foundations of ecosocialism, seeing this concept as “a common horizon line that allows us to come, to arrive from all sides and to converge” between leftist forces. In 2017, the term had been at the center of Mr. Mélenchon’s campaign. Less, in 2022.
Clémentine Autain’s original movement, Ensemble, was partly refounded as the Ecosocialist Left in June, anchoring itself in LFI. At a time when socialists “move” on the ecological issue, where the climate issue makes the border between “reform and revolution”the elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis has therefore highlighted, on a political ground appeased by the distance between Paris and Brussels, her convergences with the socialists.
“Producing an imaginary other”
Usually, the “rebellious” are more fond of discussions with the Labor Party of Belgium (PTB) but the agreement of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) has reshuffled the cards. “Your book shows how much we speak the same language. For a long time, with the socialists, I had the feeling that this was not the case”she launched in the introduction. “Is this a turning point? It is too early to tell, but I feel that something is happening, in the socialist family, between the Germans, the Nordics, the Spaniards and the Belgians, on the issue of the climate emergency, there is a real emerging consensus”estimated Mr. Magnette, professor of political science, for whom “yes, today, the adversary is capitalism”.
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