Heat stroke on the Nupes campaign, Tuesday, June 14. It is almost 40 degrees in the Jean-Mermoz room in Toulouse (Haute-Garonne), Sylvie, CGT fan in hand, tries to cool off as best she can. “We are warmer than the climate!”, launches Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the opening of this first meeting between the two rounds of the legislative elections, in front of a thousand spectators. A warmth that inspires the Toulouse woman with a political commentary: “That’s why we have to stop messing around with the climate. And macronie is his specialty.”
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But do not count on the leader of La France insoumise to bring down the temperature in this city where he had come close to 40% in the presidential election and in a department where the candidates of the union of the left have made very good scores: “His boat sinks, Macron takes the plane.” An allusion to the speech of the President of the Republic on the tarmac of Orly. For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a speech of one hour and twenty minutes where everything goes, and a target: Emmanuel Macron who goes abroad for several days, mocked in “little liberal”.“He did a hold-up, he’s the one who said it. He arrives as a liberal, he opens the box, exposes Jean-Luc Mélenchon, between two bursts of laughter from his audience. You know, there’s the little chemist… The little liberal: there are buttons everywhere. He pressed everywhere, everything, everything, everything, everything! Lower wages, lower taxes for the rich, the ISF I remove. Go shoo!”
Full house for the meeting of Melenchon in Toulouse, the public still arrives. It is 40° inside the room, which is right next to, ironically, an outdoor swimming pool, unfortunately closed. pic.twitter.com/xJUASPNFFo
— Benjamin Mathieu (@BenjMathieu) June 14, 2022
The one who aspires to become the Prime Minister of a cohabitation government is also there to mobilize all those who abstained, or voted on the left, but not for Nupes: “In less than a month, we have rewritten history. We have thrown grudges to the river. This is what allows me to tell you loud and clear that all those who oppose Nupes on behalf of I don’t know which left do only one thing: to serve the adversary. Vote Nupes!” At the end of the meeting, Shérazade’s eyes are sparkling: “I think I’m not going to go to work and I’m going to help them because we come out of there full of hope. Really, it gives us chills.”
But for the victory, it will be necessary to seek the young people who massively abstained. Maybe after the defeat of their presidential candidate, they no longer believe in it. This is the feeling of Axelle, a student from Toulouse who does not think that Jean-Luc Mélenchon will be able to be appointed head of government: “Honestly, I think we can really win a lot of seats, a lot more than usual. On the other hand, I don’t think we’ll have the majority… but it’s true that I was still gave hope.”
The rebellious leader continues to stage his duel with the head of state to lie on Sunday evening the activists who, like Axelle, have lowered their hopes.