Who will join the New Popular Ecological and Social Union to try to bring Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Matignon? “We are a few steps away from a historic agreement”assured, Tuesday 3 May in Europe 1, the chief negotiator of the Socialist Party, Pierre Jouvet, in the context of talks with La France insoumise with a view to the legislative elections. A possible agreement could be submitted “in debate” during the PS national office on Tuesday evening, he said.
>> Legislative 2022: follow the negotiations live on the left
On this anniversary of the Popular Front’s victory in 1936, three left-wing parties have already found common ground with LFI. Two other formations slammed the door. But two others could join the round in the next few hours or days, before a nominating convention for Nupes members scheduled for Saturday. Franceinfo takes stock of the progress of the discussions, party by party.
They reached an agreement
Generation.s. The movement founded by Benoît Hamon, former socialist candidate for the 2017 presidential election, concluded an agreement with LFI on Thursday April 28, with the hope of obtaining “at least 10 to 15” reserved constituencies. “We consider that we have little time to lose, because every day lost for the unit is a day in which we will not fight together”had then pressed its national coordinator Benjamin Lucas, spokesperson for Yannick Jadot during the presidential election.
Europe Ecology-The Greens. A member of the Ecologist Pole like Génération.s, EELV was the first heavyweight to join LFI under the banner of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union. A decision approved by the Federal Council, on the night of Sunday to Monday: 84 representatives of EELV voted for the agreement, 10 against and 8 white. EELV obtained a hundred constituencies reserved for the Ecologist Pole, out of a total of 577. Since then, Julien Bayou’s party has been involved in negotiations with other parties.
The French Communist Party. A historic ally of LFI, the PCF formalized their agreement for the legislative elections on Tuesday. “We wish to federate on the basis of an ambitious program all the forces which share it, while respecting their plurality and their autonomy”writes the Communist Party in a press release. “On May 3, 1936, the Popular Front won the legislative elections. On May 3, 2022, we come together in a New Popular Ecological and Social Union”, wrote on Twitter the party’s national secretary, Fabien Roussel.
They always negotiate
The Socialist Party. The PS represents the thorniest issue in these discussions. The party was initially sidelined from the talks, before joining the dance on April 27. And this despite the internal rebellion of a minority current and historical figures such as Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, Stéphane Le Foll and François Hollande, who judge a possible agreement “unacceptable”.
However, the camp of first secretary Olivier Faure says it is ready to “build something solid”without “prefixed calendar”. The exchanges were eventful, and even suspended at the end of the week by the PS, worried about a “hegemonic logic” of LFI. Progress was made on Monday. The boss of the PS went in person to the headquarters of the “rebellious” to participate in the negotiations. And a new session is scheduled for Tuesday, May 3, from 10 a.m. “We are not going to settle all the points in the space of a few hours, when for ten years we have not spoken to each other”explained the head of the socialist negotiators, Pierre Jouvet.
The New Anti-Capitalist Party. The NPA has “responded favorably”, from April 19, at the invitation sent to him by the “rebellious” by mail. Since then, negotiations have stalled. Philippe Poutou’s party repeated its opposition to the presence of the PS within Nupes. “We do not believe that the party which has been the main agent of social-liberalism for 40 years in this country can become overnight a force for breaking with liberal and anti-social policies”, defended the NPA on Thursday. After further discussion, “discussions should continue tomorrow”, the party wrote in a statement on Tuesday evening. Judging “very negative” “the continuation of discussions between the Popular Union and the PS”the NPA reaffirms its commitment to “a real break with the social-liberal left, the only orientation to face the right and the extreme right, within the framework of the crisis of capitalism”.
They said no
The Radical Left Party. The PRG announced on Monday its refusal to join the ongoing negotiations, after an internal vote of 90.5% in this direction. Recalling its attachment to European construction, to secularism and nuclear power, the center-left party evokes disagreements “considerable” with La France insoumise. He says he prefers his “independence” and his “values” to “arrangements” and “deep denials”. Leaves to put his future “in danger”the PRG will present under its colors “a hundred candidates” to the legislative ones. It has three deputies in the current legislature.
Workers’ struggle. Unlike the NPA, LO said on Thursday that it did not hear “guarantee” the approach initiated by LFI, assimilated to “an operation to patch up reformism” from the left. wanting “completely independent of the reformist leaderships”Nathalie Arthaud’s party opposes any government project and denounces “the trap of the bourgeois political system which consists in substituting the electoral fight for the class fight”. Lutte Ouvrière therefore plans to go it alone “in all the constituencies of the metropolis, to defend the ‘workers’ camp'”.