In his new book, published on Wednesday, the deputy of the Somme does not mince his words against the functioning and strategy of the movement founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The rebellious elected officials dismiss his accusations.
The divorce is done. After officially distancing himself from La France insoumise (LFI) at the time of the early legislative elections, the Somme MP François Ruffin continues to mark his difference with the radical left movement, in a book released on Wednesday September 11, entitled Itinerary. My France in its entirety, not halfway (editions Les Liens qui Libèrent). If he evacuates everything “settling of scores”the trained journalist openly criticizes the line of the political party, its internal functioning, but also the relationship with the people of its founder, Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
Franceinfo returns to the criticisms he makes, in his book constructed like an interview with “an accomplice” who is not named, and on the responses given to him by the members of the movement, who are unhappy with the substance and form of Picard’s releases.
The attitude attributed to Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the 2012 legislative campaign
François Ruffin talks at length about his relationship with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whom he says he only saw twice before his election as a member of parliament in 2017. He attributes some unfriendly remarks to the speaker about the legislative campaign five years earlier. In 2012, Jean-Luc Mélenchon finished fourth in the presidential election (11.1%), behind Marine Le Pen (17.9%), and decided to face the leader of the National Front (future National Rally) in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont, in Pas-de-Calais. He ultimately failed in the first round.
“When he told me about Hénin, It was almost disgustingdescribes François Ruffin. ‘We didn’t understand a word of what they were saying… They were sweating alcohol from the morning… They smelled bad… Almost all of them were obese…’ It hurt me. Because these were people from my area, too, that he was talking about.” More broadly, according to François Ruffin, Jean-Luc Mélenchon “brings up to date” a form of “left-wing snobbery”.
Contacted by franceinfo, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s entourage denounces the “logic of destruction” Who “push” François Ruffin at “inventing words” and deplores this “dishonest way of doing politics”In a long, well-reasoned blog post published on Thursday, LFI national coordinator Manuel Bompard said: “shocked” by the “accusations” of the Picardy deputy, whom he describes as “hurtful, unfair and dangerous”.
The rebellious strategy of targeting “youth and working-class neighborhoods” to the detriment of the “rest” decried
The most insistent criticisms, formulated by François Ruffin in his latest book and in the media, concern the strategy of La France insoumise to conquer power. The deputy of Picardy expresses his “deep disagreement on the line”In his eyes, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s movement has “everything focused on youth and working-class neighborhoods” And “abandoned the rest”as he explains in New Obsabout the workers, “workers” and rural residents.
A strategy recently claimed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “We need to mobilize the youth and the working-class neighborhoods. Forget everything else, we’re wasting our time. There are the masses of people who have an interest in a left-wing policy.”explains the rebellious leader, filmed by the TF1 group program “Quotidien”, Saturday, in the procession of the Parisian demonstration against Emmanuel Macron and Michel Barnier.
To denounce this exclusive choice, François Ruffin returns to the “facial campaign” which he claims to have carried out during the 2022 legislative elections: “When I came across a black person or an Arab, I would pull out Mélenchon’s head, in big letters on the leaflets. It was almost a sure sign of success. (…) But as soon as we came across a white person, not just in the countryside, even in the neighborhoods, it became a barrier. It didn’t work at all. So, I would present another document, without his face or his name.” Here again, the story of the founder of the newspaper Fakir is unverifiable.
“What a filthy formula”denounced on the social network X LFI MP for Hauts-de-Seine Aurélien Saintoul on the subject of the “facial campaign” mentioned by François Ruffin, who “is not a comrade”. “François Ruffin is a disappointment”abounded on the same social network his colleague from Essonne Antoine Léaument.
“To suggest that because LFI fights racism, which is essential, we would abandon the social question, is only to pay tribute to what our adversaries say and I think that is not worthy of François”reacted Thursday on France Inter the LFI deputy of Seine-Saint-Denis Eric Coquerel. The elected official does not confirm the instructions of leafleting on the basis of appearance. He also denies the absence of the insurgents in the “bastions of the working class”, “refuted by all the facts”He cites as an example the presence of LFI elected representatives among the Goodyear workers in Amiens, François Ruffin’s chosen land, to maintain employment there.
A movement “where there is fear” and “no room for debate” denounced
Since his political debut in 2016, François Ruffin has refused to formally join La France Insoumise. Although he sat within the LFI group from 2017 to 2024, the author of the documentary Thanks Boss! remained at the head of his own party, Picardie debout. After the last legislative elections, he officially joined the Ecologist and Social group. “Over the last two years, life within the LFI group had become unbearable”the deputy justifies himself in The New Obs.
Since his summer departure, François Ruffin has no longer held back his attacks on the functioning of LFI, “a party where there is fear, (…) where there is no room for debate, discussion, contradiction, exchange and overcoming contradictions”, he pointed out on BFMTVWednesday. Criticisms of the lack of internal democracy are not new. They have been made several times by historical rebels, such as Alexis Corbière, Clémentine Autain or Danielle Simonnet, also members of the environmentalist group.
If he points the“scarecrow” What, according to him, Jean-Luc Mélenchon represents in the eyes of voters, the Picard attacks even more violently the entourage of the former presidential candidate, “apparatchiks”parachuted into constituencies that are a priori favorable. “Their main battle is in the movement’s offices, it is to court Jean-Luc, gun-carrier, towel-carrier, water-carrier, to be invested in the right place.”
Already deteriorating over the last two years, relations between the Somme MP and the rebellious elected officials close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon have become explosive in recent days. François Ruffin “is doing something that doesn’t suit me at all, he’s starting to score own goals a bit too much”reacted the deputy Eric Coquerel. For the rebellious elected representative from Marseille, Sébastien Delogu, speaking on Sud Radio, his attitude is “pitiful”. In view of the responses from Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s supporters, the break seems final.