squaring the circle for the left!

No one seems ready to form a coalition with the New Popular Front as long as the rebels are there. Hence the question that arises: who is ready to break with LFI?

While Lucie Castets, the candidate of the New Popular Front, is actively campaigning to bring the left to Matignon, it seems obvious on Monday, July 29 that Emmanuel Macron will not send the New Popular Front to Matignon… as long as the rebels are there! Even if he did, neither the right, nor the center, nor the Macronists would follow them to the Assembly. This government would fall at the first motion of censure. Rightly or wrongly, but it is a fact, and we saw it during the legislative campaign: LFI worries as much if not more than the RN. The outbursts, for example, of a Thomas Porte demanding the exclusion of Israeli athletes from the Games do not help matters. Within LFI itself, five rebels, Clémentine Autain, Alexis Corbière, Hendrik Davi, François Ruffin and Danièle Simonnet have already broken with the rebels and will sit with the environmentalists. Among their allies, the PS, PC and Greens: the Front seemed to be holding up until now, but now it is cracking.

In reality, it is the old faults of the left that are being reactivated. The environmentalists have historically had a grudge against the socialists. An EELV official speaks outright of phobia. In all the cantons, you will find an environmentalist traumatized by a socialist mayor who did not respect him in the past. Even those most angry about the ambiguity of the rebels on Hamas on October 7 want them to stay because they protect them against the socialists. Within the PS, the trauma there is the Hollande five-year term. “You can’t imagine the feeling of betrayal that remains present among our activists”, says a PS figure for whom the imperative is to re-anchor themselves on the left, therefore to stay with the rebels! Which does not mean that everyone in the PS is on a radical program line. All these fractures burst into the open on Thursday, during an extraordinary national council. Olivier Faure’s opponents are questioning Lucie Castets’ active campaign for Matignon, all left! Unable to clearly distance herself from Thomas Portes on Israeli athletes.

Negotiations continued during this period, even in the Olympic stands, where we saw socialists and Macronists in deep conversation. Elisabeth Borne’s nods to her former left-wing family. Some environmentalists were not left out. An “ecumenical” What’sApp group was formed with Macronists like Agnès Panier Runacher. One idea came back in force: that Emmanuel Macron announce the introduction of proportional representation for the next elections. A campaign promise from 2017. It would give back their freedom to all political forces that would no longer need an agreement with the rebels in the next elections. Obviously, for Emmanuel Macron, the risk would be to see the PS repeat Raphael Glucksman’s score in the European elections. The key seems to still be on the side of the Élysée?