He was to devote the anniversary of the victory of the Popular Front, May 3, 1936, but this Tuesday, May 3, at 10 p.m., the agreement for the June legislative elections between France insubordinate (LFI) and the Socialist Party (PS ) was still unsigned. However, the rebels as the socialists believed that an agreement was possible in the night. The alliance had been sealed in the afternoon between LFI and the Communists (fifty constituencies including the eleven where the CP is outgoing and five winnable) and Sunday with the ecologists, with a hundred constituencies and the assurance of having a group in the Assembly. But the rebels have more difficulty convincing the socialists.
From Tuesday morning, when the two parties resumed discussions from Monday, the tension was sensitive. The pressure put on by the Insoumis was close to an ultimatum. The agreement “must be concluded today”, recalled the deputy Éric Coquerel, one of the negotiators. “At some point, you have to campaign,” hammered, meanwhile, Manuel Bompard on FranceInfo, campaign director for Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The deadlines for sending posters and leaflets to the printer are getting closer. Applications for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19 will take place from May 16 to 20. »
The Socialists, they blew hot and cold. “We are a few steps away from a historic agreement”, assured Pierre Jouvet on Tuesday morning. But the chief negotiator admitted at the same time, on Europe 1, that there “remained certain settings” and that the PS would be “respected”. Arm wrestling in perspective.
Deadlocks in eight constituencies
LFI’s initial proposals fell far short of socialist pretensions. “We were offered between sixty and ninety constituencies, thirty of which were winnable, whereas they gave one hundred to the Greens. We could not validate that, explains a socialist parliamentarian. In 2017, we had 360 applicants. In addition, there is the financial aspect. To collect public funds, it is necessary to reach at least 1% in 50 constituencies. »
On the side of the Insoumis, we emphasize, on the contrary, the concessions made to the Socialists. “What the PS demanded in terms of constituencies, both in number and in quality, was very difficult to justify in view of the balance that had to be maintained with the other parties. We have taken into consideration many of their requests and in particular that of taking into account not only their result in the presidential election but also their territorial anchoring, at the level of the cities, the regions…” explains Aurélie oublie, president of the Parliament of the Union. popular and one of the negotiators of the Insoumis.
The last blockages seem to have concerned eight constituencies including one in Lille and one in the Landes, three in Occitania and three in Paris. And in particular, according to our information on the 15th in the capital held for several legislatures by the PS and claimed by LFI for the benefit of Danielle Simonnet.
The question of Europe
The programmatic project continued, Tuesday evening, to be a source of litigation. With the essential blocking point: Europe and, in particular, the provision contained in the agreements signed by the ecologists and the communists, the possibility of “disobeying” certain European rules, in the financial and budgetary fields.
Olivier Faure said he was, however, ready to negotiate. “I wish that the term of disobedience is not registered in our common platform, we are not frexiteurs”, had warned the boss of the PS, Sunday on France Inter. While paving the way for a possible compromise: “We want to put Europe under tension on a certain number of subjects, on social and environmental subjects, and therefore this may suppose temporarily objecting to the rules which are set by the European Union,” he conceded.
But faced with the anger expressed by several socialist personalities, it seems that the leadership of the PS has backtracked. François Hollande, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis – former number one of the PS – or Stéphane Le Foll – former minister and mayor of Le Mans – stepped up to the plate to cry out for the “surrender” of their party. Tuesday, a thousand members of the PS signed the letter from Hélène Geoffroy, the mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin – leader of a minority current within the party – to refuse this alliance.
Tuesday afternoon, former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve announced on social networks that he would leave the PS in the event of a legislative agreement with LFI, believing that such an agreement, “would sign the denial of our convictions and the forgetting our achievements, a failure in our history, a renunciation of the future”.