“Showing our vision in wide angle.” The candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon projected himself towards space, digital technology and the sea – “the new frontiers of humanity” – hoping to do “a blast” with a meeting “immersive and olfactory” , Sunday January 16 in Nantes (Loire-Atlantique). Four walls 50 meters wide visually projected the 3,500 activists present at ExpoNantes into space – LFI also claimed 1,500 other spectators from an outdoor screen.
The visual effects were there but the olfactory dimension remained discreet. This meeting cost 300,000 euros, campaign manager Manuel Bompard told BFMTV, “sbe 100,000 euros more than a traditional meeting”.
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“It is seen from space that we better understand everything there is to do on Earth. Thousands of applications in your phone depend on space, GPS, weather, cartography.. .”, began Jean-Luc Mélenchon. For him, the Ariane program gives serious advantages to France, enabling it to “openly enroll in this new page in the history of humanity”. He urged his supporters to “political battle for the decommodification, the disarmament of space”, who must “remain a place of peace”.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon then mentioned “the digital web”, while the visual array of circuit boards spread across the screens. Independence policy on internet cables laid under the oceans, artificial intelligence including “You do not have to be afraid”, machines that must finally “ease the pain of human beings”… The candidate asserted that France had to take back technical progress. The time saved thanks to the machines will help, according to him, to guarantee retirement at 60 and the reduction of up to 32 hours of working time.
The candidate then spoke about the third dimension of his meeting, the sea. “Look at its power, its strength, this is the way out of nuclear because it contains 66 times the power we need, with the movement of the tides and the currents”, professed the one who visited Friday the first offshore wind turbine off Pornichet (Loire-Atlantique) and advocates geothermal energy. “Nuclear power must be phased out, not out of ideology but because it’s dangerous”, reaffirmed the rebellious.
The candidate, moreover, rejected again the calls for the union of the “Popular Primary”, the investiture vote which is held at the end of January: “We are not concerned by the misadventures of the center left, between the PRG of Taubira and the Socialist Party of Hidalgo”, he snapped, the day after the declaration of candidacy for the premiere – which he said “enjoy” personally.