As the gap continues to widen between the leaders of the left-wing parties, around thirty deputies gathered to “demonstrate that they can get along”.
Cold atmosphere at the Nupes seminar, which was held Monday September 18 in Ivry-sur-Seine, near Paris. After the declarations of the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, claiming not to “to like” its partners in the left alliance, deputies are trying as best they can to preserve the union during this seminar.
No back-to-school hugs, no big table. Everyone eats their own meal tray. And only around thirty deputies, out of the 150 that Nupes has, made the trip, according to franceinfo. The passes of arms between the different leaders of the left are “tiring, tiring”, for Boris Vallaud, deputy and boss of the socialists in the Assembly. He speaks of generalized fistfights, ironically about an energy “not even renewable, it exhausts everyone and in the end, the batteries are flat.”
“We have the right to disagree”
“For a number of us”defends the chosen one, “we want to demonstrate, first and foremost to the National Assembly, that we are capable of getting along when people’s lives are at stake.”
Politics, when it speaks for itself, annoys everyone
Boris Vallaud, socialist deputyat franceinfo
Three in-depth workshops are organized during the seminar, one on the budget, the other on immigration, and the last on agriculture, before the presentation of bills on these themes to the Assembly. “Everything that is collective does us good”, concedes Cyrielle Chatelain, the president of the environmental group at the Palais Bourbon. “We have had working habits for a year in office. The question is not whether we like each other or not, whether we like each other or not. But whether we are ready to work together. “
For these deputies, union is possible, and even if the party leaders decide otherwise, it cannot be “sacrificed on the altar of presidential ambitions”, according to a socialist deputy. For another figure of the PS, “we have the right to disagree, but not to give the feeling that the divorce is irremediable.”
Sometimes you have to renegotiate the marriage contract
A socialist deputyat franceinfo
“The thread is stretched, but must not break”
For the European elections in June 2024, the left is leaving in a dispersed order, without a common list for the moment. “We will have to ensure that tensions do not spill over into the intergroup”whispers to Franceinfo a leading environmentalist.
Especially since Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of La France Insoumise, is now putting pressure on his partners in the Assembly. “Our strategic differences are important”he specifies. “The question asked is whether Nupes should remain or not. We want it to stay and present a joint candidacy to the Europeans. Our partners must clarify their intentions on the subject.”
It is an internal standoff alongside the battles in the chamber against the government and the majority. Some on the left hope that Nupes’ year two won’t be its last. An elected communist, supporter of the union, has this motto: “When the thread becomes taut, let’s make sure it doesn’t break.”