They take a step towards Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Olivier Faure, the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), like the Communist Party say they are ready to engage in a dialogue with Mr. Mélenchon for the legislative elections. While La France insoumise (LFI), which came largely in the lead on the left in the first round of the presidential election on April 10, offered environmentalists and communists on Friday to form a coalition for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, but excluding the PS, Olivier Faure ensures that his “hand is outstretched”in an interview with the newspaper Release.
“I am ready to engage in a dialogue on the condition that it is not the staging of a lying poker”explains the first secretary, who, on the evening of the first round, had already called “a pact for social and ecological justice”. He recognizes that “the presidential campaign has left its mark” between the two camps. That being so, “unless you accept the idea that the left has only a minority vocation, it is not possible to refuse discussion with the left formation which has the strongest territorial network”i.e. the PS.
“The gathering will never be caporalization”
It already lays down some principles for an agreement: “First, aim for unique candidates wherever the far-right threat exists. Then, avoid fratricidal duels each time there is a leftist or environmentalist outgoing”. “Finally, agree as often as possible on the candidate who has the best chance of winning against the right, taking into account the results of the last elections, the dynamics specific to the presidential election and the territorial settlements »he continues.
While the “rebellious” want to build a coalition on the basis of their program, Olivier Faure believes that “gathering will never be corporalization. Disagreements exist. (…) We must come together on our common fights while respecting different stories and projects..
He recalls that PS and LFI have “beaten together in the Assembly” on many projects. “These fights justify coming together, even if we will never be clones. I respect the “rebellious”, but I am not rebellious. No one will pass under a fathom”he warns.
” Act together “
The Communist Party, for its part, published a letter on Saturday in which we can read that “all forces of the left must act together”, “in respect of their results at the electoral deadlines and their specificities”. “We are ready to discuss your proposals and we also have some to submit to you, aiming for a basis of shared agreement on all issues”writes the national executive committee of the PCF.
LFI on Friday proposed to ecologists and communists to form a coalition for the legislative elections of June 12 and 19, whose base would be “a common shared program” established ” from “ that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. LFI also offers them to start negotiations on a distribution of constituencies in proportion to the scores of the first round of the presidential election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon had won 21.95% of the vote, far ahead of the environmental candidate Yannick Jadot (4.63%) and the communist Fabien Roussel (2.28%).
For communists, “all the forces of the left face a historic responsibility and must act together: by coming together, respecting their electoral results and their specificities, they can defeat Macron’s right, the far right and get elected the greatest possible number of left-wing deputies by aiming to obtain a left-wing majority in the National Assembly”.
“Fighting the Far Right”
In front of “a very difficult situation for the country”they note “a reason for hope. The left progresses by 4.27 points compared to the 2017 election and obtains nearly 32%”first thanks “to the progress of Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” and also “to the result of our candidate, Fabien Roussel”accused by certain “rebellious” activists of having prevented, through his candidacy, the accession of Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the second round.
“It is now a question of continuing to expand our respective capacities for bringing people together, while respecting our political objectives and practices, while working on the convergences essential for concrete progress for the French”, they explain again. However, they point out that “the priority for the Communists is to beat Marine Le Pen at the polls, Sunday April 24”.
“We call for initiatives, everywhere in the country, to reveal and fight the project of the far right and its organized forces”they add, calling “to use the only ballot at our disposal to beat Marine Le Pen (…). We will do this without any concessions to Emmanuel Macron, who is primarily responsible for this situation, and (…) whose resolute adversaries we will remain”.