Jean-Luc Mélenchon does not plan to be a deputy himself for the next five years. Invited on France 2 to confirm that he would not stand again in the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, the outgoing deputy of Bouches-du-Rhônes replied, Friday May 6, that he would not be “presumably” not a candidate.
The leader of La France insoumise invoked the sufficient legitimacy that would confer on him, if he were to become prime minister, the seven million votes garnered in the first round of the presidential election, where he imposed himself in third position, far ahead all the other candidates from the left.
A “gathering reflex”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon also spoke about the agreements made between LFI, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts (EELV), the Socialist Party (PS) and the Communist Party (PCF). He mentioned a “reflex of gathering in the face of an episode of aggravated social abuse: twenty hours of forced labor per week for the RSA, retirement at 65, and so on” – reference to key points of Emmanuel Macron’s programme.
Regarding the negotiations between parties whose candidates have been torn in the presidential campaign, “The good news is that when we started to discuss, we realized that each other did not conform to the caricature that we had of each other”he rejoiced.
“We realized, for example, that on Europe, we all agreed to say [qu’]there is no question, in a mandate like this and in the current context, of leaving the euro. That’s not the point”he developed. “On the other hand, if we make a commitment to the French on a program, we apply it”he commented, to defend the possibility of “disobey” in Brussels.
“We had very little time”
He also justified that significant differences persist, on the basis of their political projects, between LFI and its environmentalist and socialist partners. The fault, he assured, in the electoral calendar:
We had very little time. In the other European countries, they hold their legislative elections, and then they look for a coalition… and that will take time, eight months. We are behind a presidential election, at full speed. It was necessary to resolve in thirteen days what had been sources of conflict for ten years.
The leader of La France insoumise also outlined what could be the future functioning of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union representation in the Assembly. He repeated that each of the partners (LFI, EELV, PCF, PS) would have its parliamentary group (fifteen deputies at least). “We will also have an intergroup, just as we will have a common political parliament, outside the institutional structure”he specified.