Several members of Nupes have criticized the strategy followed by La France insoumise, judged to go against the current of that defined collectively.
The left alliance is faltering. The deputies of the parties making up the Nupes shot each other in the paws at the end of the two weeks of debate on the pension reform, closed on the night of Friday February 17 to Saturday February 18, shortly after midnight. The text will continue its way to the Senate, while the elected officials have not reached the famous article 7, which postpones the legal age of retirement to 64 years.
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Within the Nupes, criticism rocketed Friday evening, in particular on the line followed by La France Insoumise (LFI) since the arrival of the bill in the hemicycle.
A strategic divergence on the review of Article 7
The Greens (EELV) dissociated themselves from the Insoumis by taxing their plan of “strategic failure” Friday night. In the firing line: LFI’s refusal to withdraw its amendments to the text, while the other Nupes formations have deleted a large part of theirs to speed up discussions. “Normally, the heart of the debate should have been the withdrawal of the pension reform, we see that in the end the debate shifted to the withdrawal of the LFI amendments”regretted the president of the environmental group Cyrielle Chatelain to AFP.
At the heart of the differences: the examination of article 7 of the reform. On the union side, the secretary of the CFDT, Laurent Berger, and the boss of the CGT, Philippe Martinez, had asked that it be debated by Parliament. The Green MPs also wanted the discussion in the hemicycle to be able to reach Article 7, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon had called on his people on Thursday not to “precipitate”. “We would have liked to have this debate” over the age of 64, “It would have put the government in great difficulty, we felt the concerns of parliamentarians and the government”, explained Cyrielle Chatelain. Questioned by franceinfo, the ecologist deputy Mélissa Camara is more nuanced: “It’s a difference of opinion on Article 7, but the important thing is that we allowed the government to get into trouble”.
The Socialists also would have welcomed an acceleration of the debates. “There was a strategic, tactical disagreement over the conduct of operations” with LFI, insisted the first secretary of the Socialist Party (PS) Olivier Faure at the microphone of LCP, but “the real failure, it is governmental”.
At the microphone of franceinfo, the deputy LFI of Seine-Saint-Denis, Aurélie Trouvou, recognized “a mess” while the debates stopped at the doors of article 3, but returned the ball to the executive: “In nine days, it is impossible to examine such a text (…) The dice were loaded in advance.” Asked about the criticisms of the members of the Nupes, the elected official stressed that“we (the parties of the Nupes) may have differences in tactical appreciation, but we were united on the essentials”.
LFI accused of going “lonely”
So was there a lack of discussion among Nupes members? “There is a permanent consultation on the collective strategy. We had also made an intergroup press release at the end of January on our wish to discuss article 7assures the spokesperson for the PS group in the National Assembly, Arnaud Delaporte, at franceinfo. But a majority of LFI deputies felt that going to article 7 was to align themselves with the government’s discourse.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon has also accused the other parties of being too much in tune with the majority. “The rebellious deputies held firm, even when their Nupes allies unfortunately aligned themselves with the lessons of good manners given by the macronie”, he wrote on his blog on Friday. Already on Thursday, the leader of LFI had described as“incomprehensible” the withdrawal of amendments from left-wing parties (except LFI).
But beyond its strategy displayed in the hemicycle, the Insoumis party gives the impression of trying to move forward without its Nupes comrades. “What happened this week reveals his willingness to go it alone on tacticsinsists Arnaud Delaporte. There is however a need to have a union of the strong left to make heard the essential: our common opposition to the reform “. Cyrielle Chatelain for her part assured AFP that the Nupes, “it works when we work together”.
“Each of the parties of the Nupes is essential but, for it to work, we must also respect the whole.”
Cyrielle Chatelainat AFP
According to Green MP Sandrine Rousseau, quoted by AFP, “there is an effort to be made to move from LFI to Nupes” And “we will have to decide on an act II of the Nupes”.
Differences within LFI?
And on the subject, the Insoumis do not all seem to agree. Evidence of internal differences: Jean-Luc Mélenchon held a meeting in Montpellier (Hérault) on Thursday, the same day as that organized by MP Raquel Garrido in her constituency of Seine-Saint-Denis, with, among others, François Ruffin, Clementine Autain or Alexis Corbière. The first brought together 1,400 people, the second only 400.
MP Alexis Corbière wanted LFI “hear the instructions of the trade unions”, unlike Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who asked them not to get involved in Parliament. The question was decided on Thursday evening: during a tight internal vote, the LFI group finally gave up on withdrawing its amendments en masse.
Asked by AFP, Matthias Tavel, deputy and close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, wanted to be reassuring: “It’s not a political and strategic break, nobody says ‘We have to stop the Nupes'”. But in view of the presidential election of 2027, “we don’t necessarily have the same way of seeing how we win: some think it’s by remaining homogeneous”like Manuel Bompard, “others that it is pluralism and internal democracy that will make us grow”such as Clémentine Autain and Alexis Corbière.