“As a symbol of the agreement signed between Insoumis and socialists which does not go everywhere, this sixth district of the department has been the scene of a showdown since Wednesday between Cristina Martineau, deputy mayor and who would normally have had to compete in the legislative elections. for the Socialist Party (PS), and Gabriel Amard, officially invested by the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union (Nupes)”, notes The Sunday newspaper. Ousted, Cristina Martineau let her resentment burst out with the media: “In Villeurbanne, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s message is ‘my son-in-law before women’.“
According to information from the magazine Gala, Maryline Mélenchon has been married to Gabriel Amard since 2016. He is a former member of the Socialist Party, now a regional councilor for Auvergne-Rhône-Alpes, who joined the ranks of his father-in-law. The couple are parents of a teenage daughter with whom her famous grandfather is close, but it is forbidden to call her grandpa.
Critics taken up by the PS mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin Hélène Geoffroy, leader of the minority current opposed to the agreement with LFI with the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES). She lamented on Europe 1 a “surrender” or even a “shipwreck” and a form of “fraud”, with “a certain number of candidates from La France insoumise” will be “parachuted” on socialist land. The PS mayor of Villeurbanne, Cédric Van Styvendael, has, in this regard, accused of parachuting Gabriel Amard, regional councilor La France insoumise and son-in-law of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which the interested party denies, assuring BFMTV to return “in the family fold“.
Other tensions on the left
This is not the only source of tensions linked to the agreement on the left criticized by many personalities such as Jean-Christophe Cambadélis or Bernard Cazeneuve. The investiture confirmed Sunday of the militant journalist Taha Bouhafs in the 14th district of the Rhône also made people cringe. At the same time, former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin came to lend noticeable support to the socialist Lamia El Aarajeaccording to him “legitimate candidate“in the 15th district where she plans to present herself in dissidence against the Insoumise Danielle Simonnet, already invested.
If he did not react on behalf of Gabriel Amard precisely, the former presidential candidate who finished with 22% of the votes in the first round assumes a certain radicalism by declaring on France Inter / Franceinfo /The world: “The moderates, once arrived (in power), they spend their time being afraid of their shadow and change nothing.“And Hope That”this reconciliation will be sincere and that people will take a liking to being together.“