It is, in principle, the weekend of the last chance: Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the Insoumis call on the left to get out of the “culture of defeat” as the last hours scheduled for their negotiations for the legislative elections pass. , even if the scenario of an extension to next week emerges.
Sunday evening was the deadline for an agreement mentioned by all the protagonists, evoking the imperatives of electoral propaganda in view of the elections on June 12 and 19.
However, we are “still in the dark”, slips to AFP Alain Coulombel, one of the negotiators of EELV, while discussions resumed Saturday afternoon at the headquarters of LFI with his party.
“It’s progressing”, for his part soberly commented Manuel Bompard, chief negotiator for LFI. His training has been dominant since Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s 22% on April 10, while all the others have been relegated below 5% giving them the right to reimbursement of their campaign expenses.
The desire to conclude an agreement seemed real on Saturday between LFI and EELV. The two formations have tackled in depth the themes that could get in the way, such as Europe, the sharing of constituencies or even the mode of organization of the alliance, during the last two weeks.
After judging Friday morning that an agreement was “in sight”, the leader of the Greens Julien Bayou suggested, on Saturday to AFP, that EELV was attentive to discussions with the other parties before concluding: “We want It’s progressing, with everyone, and between everyone”.
Because with the Socialist Party, the reconciliation started in the middle of the week will take time, the Socialists having “suspended” their discussions Friday noon. In question, argued the party leadership: the “hegemonic” attitudes of LFI.
The rebellion of certain elected officials and a minority current who do not accept that the PS has subscribed to the ideological demands of the rebels (retirement at 60, partial disobedience to Europe, price freezes, etc.) also explain the procrastination of Olivier Faure and his lieutenants.
However, “the link is in no way broken” with LFI, assured Saturday a PS negotiator to AFP, who explained: “The discussions, we hope, will continue. In a negotiation, there is always periods of stopping, sudden accelerations. In the hours and days to come, there will be restarts and stops”.
According to this socialist, “the only real deadline for LFI is May 7 (the day of the Popular Union’s investiture convention), so they want it to be over by that date. But in reality, until on May 14, everything is manageable. For no one there is a deadline”.
– “Social-liberalism” –
From these adventures, Jean-Luc Mélenchon gets annoyed. The former presidential candidate, who is now targeting Matignon, calls on the left-wing parties on Saturday in the JDD to get out of “the permanent culture of defeat”, regretting that they “let themselves be absorbed by their internal issues”.
His criticisms also target the PS just as much as EELV – and its “internal mode of operation” favoring the plurality of tendencies – and the PCF.
The communist Fabien Roussel, without waiting for an agreement which is too late for his taste, thus announced on Friday his candidacy for his re-election in his northern constituency of Saint-Amand-les-Eaux.
The Communists hope to have more constituencies than those of their incumbents, claiming to be better established in certain areas. On Saturday, the Communists acted in a statement to AFP, “that the proposals of La France insoumise, which has the primary responsibility for allowing this gathering, have not allowed at this time” an agreement.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon “warned” all his potential partners: “People will not agree twice to be robbed of victory by those who refuse to build this new majority”.
Some mayors who compose with plural majorities have stepped up to defend this model of alliance, such as the ecologist Grégory Doucet in Lyon or in Nantes the socialist Johanna Rolland – yet Anne Hidalgo’s former campaign director, who remains silent .