Michel Barnier therefore announced targeted tax increases for large businesses and the wealthiest taxpayers. Do you approve?
I am not going to disapprove of what I have been advocating for years. It is a necessity that the richest among us and the companies that make super profits contribute to the collective effort to respond to the seriousness of the budgetary situation, the explosion of inequalities and these years of tax injustice which are the hallmark of Macron’s five-year term. The problem is that it’s not enough. The rest of the speech is extremely vague, because this Prime Minister is being held on all sides. By the Macronists, by his own party, LR, and by the National Rally without which the government collapses.
Two thirds of the recovery effort will come from a reduction in public spending. Does this worry you?
But where are they going to cut? In education, health, defense, security? What is coming, in fact, is a course of austerity.
“Faced with the risk of the RN in power, we had to do painful but necessary things”
What is your view of this Barnier government with these figures from the conservative right?
I’ll give you that of my colleagues in the European Parliament: they don’t understand how we were able to move from a Republican front to this government which is the most right-wing since the election of Emmanuel Macron. Certainly, on July 7, no formation won. But there is a winner: the Republican front. However, this government is led by the party which opposed it, LR, and it is dependent on the party against which it was formed, the RN. We are here faced with the reversal of the results of July 7. It’s very serious. So how can we reproduce such a burst of mobilization? The first person responsible is Emmanuel Macron, but the entire political class must also ask questions. This fiasco is a co-production of the different parties who did not live up to the difficult gesture of the French.
What is your assessment of the NFP experience in which you tiptoed, if not backwards?
I committed to it without fanfare. But I got involved to counter the risk of victory for the RN. Faced with this, we had to do things that, yes, were painful, but necessary. On the other hand, on July 7 at 8:01 p.m., we should have reached out and put our priorities on the table to govern: increase in the minimum wage, return of the ISF, pensions, ecological transition… But at 8:02 p.m., Jean -Luc Mélenchon, by declaring that the NFP would only apply “its program”, did the exact opposite. And the political apparatuses followed suit, for fear of being accused of treason by the Mélenchonist apparatus. It is this fear that we must free ourselves from. It’s been two times in a row that the French have elected an Assembly without an absolute majority. We must therefore change political culture, learn to build coalitions.
“These deep oppositions that we took on with LFI in the European elections, we will continue to take them on”
At the Europeans, you never stopped pointing out everything that separates you from LFI. By joining the NFP, did you have the feeling of denying yourself, of betraying your voters?
I have absolutely no feeling of betrayal. On the other hand, I understand the doubts, I shared them. The RN could have power. I prioritized the perils. This moment was a unity of action against the far right, it was not that of a common vision of the world. These deep oppositions that we assumed with LFI in the European elections, we will continue to assume them.
Precisely, you who defend social democracy, what is your definition of it?
I am not advocating support for globalization. Social democracy is a social transformation with respect for democracy. It is a method which emancipates itself from Robespierrism and Jupiterism. It is a method based on dialogue so that transformations are carried out in accordance with society. France is dying from this lack of dialogue.
After the legislative elections, a social democratic option emerged for Matignon with Bernard Cazeneuve. Why not support him?
On the evening of July 7, I said that we had to develop a coalition, that was the democratic response. Then, I did not want to comment on each stage of a process which, from the start, was flawed since it was a face-to-face meeting between a president and parties who were casting a vote. Other names came out: Laurence Tubiana was an excellent choice. But neither Macron nor the four left-wing parties wanted this coalition process. There was no way it was going to work.
So how do you plan to bring your ideas to life?
The Insoumis have developed their vision of the world, they embrace it. The problem isn’t them, it’s the rest of the left. Who is she? Do we know how to answer this question clearly and convincingly? We will spend the next few months developing a project completely independent of LFI, a coherent project for France. The question is who are we? We must proceed in stages and the first is the one which should lead us to produce a clear and exciting political offer in a year’s time.
“A project is not punchlines on TV sets”
So you don’t see the Barnier government going further?
What I know is that Emmanuel Macron cannot dissolve again before June-July 2025. After that, there may be a new deadline. But we will not have the right to be taken by surprise. That we were so on June 9 when he dissolved the Assembly can be understood. Now this is no longer possible. This is the work that we are going to launch with Place publique.
To set the course towards 2027?
At the Europeans, I only spoke about Europe. Now, let’s develop the project because, as I said, we don’t know what can happen before. We are in a period full of uncertainty.
This weekend, at La Réole, Carole Delga, Anne Hidalgo, Yannick Jadot, Cécile Duflot are announced… What will the message be?
There is space for a social, democratic, ecological, humanist and pro-European left. You have to build it, work on it. And this work is not about punchlines on TV sets.
