After several hours of negotiations, the various left-wing parties launched a joint call on Monday evening for the “constitution of a new popular front” for the legislative elections.
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After long hours of discussions, the left-wing parties called, Monday June 10 in the evening, for the creation of a “new popular front” with single left-wing candidates in all the country’s constituencies.
Months of clashes, weeks of invectives and petty names exchanged between Rebels and socialists, the former accusing the latter of betraying the left in France and the Palestinians in Gaza, the socialists becoming indignant to hear Jean- Luc Mélenchon minimizes the explosion of anti-Semitism by calling it “residual”. And presto, everything is forgotten in one evening! The threat of the arrival of the far right to power and above all the fear of being swept away at the polls were enough to erase everything, as if by magic. Incidentally, this patchwork press release makes Raphaël Glucksmannun the joke.
Arriving at the head of the left on Sunday evening with 14% of the votes, the head of the PS and Place publique list was categorical on the 8 p.m. set on France 2: no, “we won’t do Nupes again”, he swore. He wanted to be guarantor of a “clear cape”. Yes to union, but on its conditions. In particular a “unwavering support for European construction”, “to the Ukrainian resistance” facing Vladimir Putin, and a clear condemnation of “excesses” and some “brutalization of public debate”. So many unacceptable demands for Jean-Luc Mélenchon that Raphaël Glucksmann had also dismissed in passing: no question that the left will line up, as in June 2022, behind the slogan “Mélenchon Prime Minister”. Raphaël Glucksmann called on a figure of “civil society”, the former secretary general of the CFDT, Laurent Berger. None of these conditions appear in the left’s joint press release, an agreement which delighted Jean-Luc Mélenchon who applauded this “well done”.
The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, is less demanding than his ex-candidate. Its priority, as in 2022 with Nupes, is to save a socialist group in the Assembly. The European elections have passed and Olivier Faure is now more concerned with getting along with the Insoumis than with Raphaël Glucksmann. With several left-wing candidates per constituency, few would be able to reach 12.5% of those registered to make it through the first round. Forceps union could save the furniture, like two years ago. Probably not to win. And even less to govern together in view of the fundamental differences passed over in silence during a month of campaigning.