La France Insoumise activists are annoyed by the rejection of their candidate Lucie Castets for the post of Prime Minister

On the sidelines of the party’s political return, near Valence, Jean-Luc Mélenchon opened the door on Saturday to a left-wing government, led by Lucie Castets, but without LFI. The right continues to assure that it would censure such a government, enough to annoy activists faced with what they consider to be “pretexts”.

The situation remains blocked. While Emmanuel Macron will resume his consultations on Monday, August 26, by receiving the far right and the presidents of the National Assembly and the Senate, the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposed, on Saturday, August 24, an NFP government led by Lucie Castets, without an LFI minister, but with the implementation of the entire program. The right of the presidential camp and the Republicans still answer no, so the situation irritates and annoys the activists at the rebellious summer universities in Châteauneuf-sur-Isère, near Valence.

Amid the stands on anti-fascism or the Palestinian cause, activists cheer Lucie Castets, passing through Amfis. But next door, Marc has little hope for the fate that Emmanuel Macron has in store for their candidate: “From the beginning he doesn’t want to, so he won’t change. We’ll see the outcome but it’s already written… The consultations are a comedy, a sham, like most of the things he’s done. It’s a pipe dream, communication and big blah blah…”

However, Farid stresses that LFI is ready to give up its place if the head of state accepts a New Popular Front government: “We would like there to be rebellious ministers, but it doesn’t matter. We are not here to have places or seats like the Macronists. That’s their habit.”

In the queue to go and listen to Lucie Castets, Odile gets annoyed by the fact that the presidential camp “decrees that La France Insoumise is not in the republican arc” while “even the Council of State said that[ils] born [sont] “no far left”. For this retiree, it’s just strategy: “Ousting LFI serves as a pretext to break up the Popular Front, I think, and especially so that Lucie Castets is not appointed and the program is not implemented.”

“We, Republicans, are willing, in the general interest, to accept not to participate in government.”

Odile, LFI activist

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Her friend, Dominique, thinks that the Macronists fear the NFP: “They absolutely do not want us to start any reform because they know that if we start any reform, people risk joining the New Popular Front. That is what they do not want, so any excuse is good. People must not be able to see that there are alternatives.”

This is precisely the other red line that the LR and the right of the presidential camp are putting forward: the program of the New Popular Front, the repeal of the pension reform or tax increases.