“Stay united” and establish itself as “the only opposition force”: the New Popular Front (NFP), a left-wing alliance created in a hurry after the surprise dissolution of the Assembly, is faced with the challenge of not imploding like the Nupes in the wake of divisions.
While the leaders of the four coalition parties met on Saturday at the Fête de l’Humanité in Brétigny-sur-Orge (Essonne) to discuss the challenges ahead, their unsuccessful candidate for Matignon, Lucie Caste Lucie Castets, called on Friday for the NFP to “continue to exist”.
“It does not depend only on me, but I will put all my energy into making it last,” she insisted in front of an enthusiastic crowd who came to listen to the woman who comes from civil society and has become the embodiment of the NFP.
She said she was “struck by the need for unity among all the activists” she met during the summer days of each training course.
The same observation was made by the leader of the communists, Fabien Roussel: “We must remain united as much as possible because the French people ask it of us and we owe it to them.”
After the failure of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), which broke up following numerous disagreements, particularly linked to the refusal of the Insoumis to describe Hamas as terrorists after the attack of October 7 in Israel, there is nevertheless a real risk of seeing the quarrels take over again.
This is evidenced by the regular barbs fired between partners, such as Hollandism being compared to “bedbugs” by the rebellious MP Sophia Chikirou.
And the recent insults exchanged between the Somme MP François Ruffin and his former party LFI, which he criticised for a communitarian electoral strategy, do not help matters.
“What we have built with the NFP is more solid than that,” believes the national secretary of the Ecologists Marine Tondelier. “The links between the four party leaders are something solid and real,” she assures, with a relationship “much more egalitarian and equitable” than the old Nupes, where LFI was hegemonic.
“The balance of power is no longer the same, and a speech by Jean-Luc Mélenchon or any other person will have much less impact,” assures socialist MP Dieynaba Diop.
-“Credible alternative”-
“We debate together regularly, every week, we work, we discuss, we see each other,” adds Fabien Roussel.
All stress that the heart of the union will be in the Assembly, where the coalition has 193 deputies, who will carry out “common initiatives”.
The appointment of Michel Barnier to Matignon with the tacit consent of the National Rally “places the NFP as the leading opposition force”, says Dieynaba Diop.
“From now on, we must embody a credible alternative, we must be able to make proposals” and “coordinate on major issues”, she explains, such as the budget or pensions.
The left risks being divided over a proposed law from the RN aimed at repealing the flagship reform of the Macron presidency pushing back the retirement age to 64.
The PCF has suggested that it could vote for the text, while the other parties refuse to support any proposal emanating from Marine Le Pen’s group.
Similarly, LFI launched impeachment proceedings against Emmanuel Macron, which very few MPs from other groups supported.
Even with regard to Prime Minister Michel Barnier, the four parties have not chosen the same attitude: the PCF will go to see him on Tuesday, the Ecologists after the composition of the government, the Socialists after his general policy speech, and the Insoumis refuse to meet him.
However, a point of agreement is claimed. They will file a motion of censure of the NFP against the new tenant of Matignon, “as soon as we have the possibility to do so”, to “say together that we refuse Emmanuel Macron’s coup de force”, hammers the rebellious Paul Vannier.
More broadly, the head of the Ecologists also pleads for continuing to work together on a future government, if Michel Barnier were to fall, and to “prepare for the 2027 presidential election”.
The subject of all dangers for the union, in view of the ambitions of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, which no one doubts, and which are very far from being unanimous.
caz/hr/cbn
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