Julien Bayou for a rapprochement with La France insoumise for the legislative elections despite “very important disagreements”
The Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV) party wants to be able to reach an agreement with La France insoumise (LFI), at least “on a non-competition pact” for the legislative elections and possibly by “a common base of proposals”announced the national secretary of the party, Julien Bayou, during a press conference on Friday.
Mr. Bayou estimated that the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came out on top of the left in the presidential election, had “great responsibility” to build “an axis of resistance and alternation” within the National Assembly. The poor result of the environmental candidate, Yannick Jadot, does not endanger the presence of environmentalists in the legislative elections, he also assured. While LFI wrote to EELV, the French Communist Party (PCF) and the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA) to propose that they form a coalition for the legislative elections, whose base would be “a common shared program” established ” from “ that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, EELV on its side proposed “a new approach”explained Mr. Bayou.
It offers at least “a non-competition, non-aggression pact”which could then lead, “if the discussions allow it, on a common base of a few key proposals, on the environment, social justice, democracy”. Regarding the distribution of nominations, he pleads for “a proportional, weighted, smoothed”which will take into account the result of the presidential election, but also “intermediate polls”like the European or the regional ones, during which the ecologists had made good scores.
“LFI has the choice between establishing domination on the left (…) or building an axis of resistance and alternation for the country”, he explained. He said he prefers to read LFI’s mail as “an openness to dialogue”while emphasizing that environmentalists were not going to do “penance” for their criticism of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, while LFI wants them to “explain themselves to the voters”. “We don’t get much back from what we said during the presidential campaign”estimated Mr. Bayou, recalling that there is “very significant disagreements with Jean-Luc-Mélenchon on the country’s foreign policy, in particular on the relationship with Russia or authoritarian regimes”.
“We are well aware – it is also the electoral competition and the presidential election – that the words have been more irritating and stinging than necessary”he admitted, however. « We respond favorably to the proposal for discussions.more “we will not be able to bear injunctions, ecology will not be erased”.