No is no. In a press release published on the evening of Tuesday, January 18, La France insoumise firmly asks the organizers of the popular Primary of the left to no longer involve their candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon has never agreed to appear in this ballot: we therefore ask that his name be removed from all physical and digital media” of this primary, writes Manuel Bompard, the campaign manager who denounces an approach “insincere”, Who “instrumentalizes aspirations to unity” from the left.
In his text, Manuel Bompard denounces “the deliberately brutal nature of this initiative, without respect for the people involved in this presidential election.” “Thus, the candidates will be put to the vote without their agreement. Others will not be there, without their opinions either”, he wrote. For the Unsubmissive, “this vote is therefore akin to a kind of poll without any of the basic rules allowing to guarantee its sincerity to be respected”.
“This is not acceptable. None of us had access to the voters file and the control commission put in place was dissolved by the organizers”, says Manuel Bompard. For him, “it is time for the electoral campaign to be rid of these unfair practices which instrumentalize the aspirations for unity and have functioned for weeks as a permanent harassment against the legitimacy of left-wing candidates”. Which, for Manuel Bompard, raises questions “on the real political intentions of this organization” with which the Insoumis want to “to put clearly at a distance”.
On Tuesday, the popular Primary claimed to have crossed the bar of 288,000 registered to vote in“inauguration” which will take place from January 27 to 30 to designate the candidate she will support from among seven personalities. This figure is already the largest of the primaries that have taken place, surpassing the ecologist primary in September (122,000) and the Republican congress in early December (nearly 140,000).
288,000 French men and women want to tip the #Presidential2022 by participating in the nomination vote of the #PrimaryPopular, from January 27 to 30
️ Encourage your loved ones to register at https://t.co/YiDyTPyoFh and we’ll meet you tomorrow at 7 p.m.! pic.twitter.com/Zun9n37VZO
— The Popular Primary (@PrimairePop) January 18, 2022
But in addition to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the ecologist Yannick Jadot and the socialist Anne Hidalgo refused to participate. Former Keeper of the Seals Christiane Taubira, MEP Pierre Larrouturou and civil society candidates Charlotte Marchandise and Anna Agueb-Porterie meanwhile said they would abide by the results.