the return of the “irreconcilable lefts”

Less than two months before the European elections on June 9, there are numerous disagreements between the different lists embodying the left. Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the PS-Place publique list, seems to be his competitors’ favorite punching bag.

On the left, the battle of the Europeans rages on Tuesday April 16. Raphaël Glucksmann, the head of the list chosen by the PS, represents a privileged target. He has become the favorite punching bag of his competitors since he is leading the left in the voting intention polls. The Insoumis paint him as an accomplice of Benyamin Netanyahu because he refuses to describe the situation of the Palestinians in Gaza as “genocide”. The national secretary of the Greens, Marine Tondelier, accuses him of being a false environmentalist because he is supported by the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga in favor of the Toulouse-Castres motorway. In return, Raphaël Glucksmann castigates LFI’s refusal to consider Hamas as a “terrorist organization” and denounces the Putinism of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Which accuses environmentalists of having renounced their pacifist ideals because they approve of arms deliveries to Ukraine. In short, on the left, everyone has become the other’s traitor. It is the return of “two irreconcilable lefts”.

Not so long ago, they were nevertheless united within the Nupes, but this alliance was only an electoral cartel of circumstances, to limit the damage to the legislative elections. The basic disagreements, on Europe, secularism or sovereign issues, had been swept under the carpet. With his score in the presidential election, Jean-Luc Mélenchon had imposed his hegemony. This fragile agreement was shattered the day after the massacres committed by Hamas on October 7. Since then, the gap on the left has only widened.

The future presidential election in the background

It is once again the question of leadership that is at stake. As he loses his influence, Jean-Luc Mélenchon raises his voice. He has taken back control of the LFI European campaign and wants to make it the first round of the 2027 presidential election. A hell of a risk because Raphaël Glucksmann rightly repeats that if he is at the head of the left on June 9, the future union will not take place on the radical line of the Insoumis.

Each of the two camps brandishes its scarecrow: on the socialist side, the excesses of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which would condemn the left to defeat; on the Insoumis side, the specter of the return of François Hollande, who would condemn the left to treason. It is hard to imagine these two lefts governing together tomorrow. Anyway, there’s no rush. In the polls, the addition of all these divided lefts painfully reaches 30% of the votes, its lowest level ever.