Barely two days after the agreement, is the New Popular Front already in trouble? Friday evening, rebellious France displayed its internal divisions in broad daylight by investing the controversial Adrien Quatennens, convicted of domestic violence, but not six other candidates including executives like Alexis Corbière (Seine-Saint-Denis), Raquel Garrido (Seine- Saint-Denis) or Danielle Simonet (Paris). Enough to provoke the incomprehension of the people concerned and the anger of the other formations of the New Popular Front.
For Alexis Corbière, interviewed this Saturday on franceinfo, the only “responsible is Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, leader of La France insoumise (LFI). “He settled accounts with me,” he assumes. “What just happened is irresponsible. »
Internal divisions involved
According to Alexis Corbière, his desire for a “more unitary line” carried internally by people not reinvested is in question. “It’s a purge of the five deputies (…) who for months, internally, in the France insoumise group, let’s not stop saying to stop this sectarian strategy vis-à-vis partners, let’s stop trying to cleave for cleave,” Danielle Simonnet insisted on RTL.
These internal divisions came to light in December 2022. At that time, LFI met to decide on the new coordination of the movement. Manuel Bompard, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s right-hand man, unsurprisingly becomes the national coordinator, but none of the LFI veterans gets a place. Among them are Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido, but also Éric Coquerel, Clémentine Autain and François Ruffin. “The withdrawal and the lockdown (governing bodies around those closest to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Editor’s note) were assumed in a brutal manner,” Clémentine Autain reacted at the time.
According to several parliamentarians at the time, this sidelining aimed to exclude potential successors to Jean-Luc Mélenchon as leader of the Insoumis. Hence the accusations of a lack of internal democracy by the people targeted, who notably held a meeting between “frondeurs” – the name given by the rebellious leadership – in February 2023. A few months later, in May 2023, we revealed that Alexis Corbière and Clémentine Autain had simply refused to sit in the new composition of the office of the LFI group in the National Assembly in view of the divisions.
President of François Ruffin’s movement Picardie Debout!, Guillaume Ancelet is also not invested. In addition to his proximity to François Ruffin, he notably questioned LFI’s strategy last year, as Mediapart notes. As does Frédéric Mathieu, who sees it as a consequence of the “democratic demand within the movement”, and Hendrik Davi who admits to being “opposed” to Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
