There will indeed be a three-way race in Roannais this Sunday, July 7, in the 5th constituency of the Loire. The LFI duo of the New Popular Front announced, this Monday evening, its maintenance, while that very morning, the left-wing forces of the NFP had agreed on a withdrawal. A position that shatters the unity of the local union of the left.
- There was some doubt about your possible continuation. Things seem to have changed hour by hour this Monday. What happened?
This Monday morning, we had discussions between the members of the New Popular Front and we were rather inclined to withdraw the NFP candidacy. A few hours later, I spoke with the Paris Electoral Committee of La France Insoumise, and we took stock of the situation by analyzing the sociology of the votes. We arrived at the conclusion that, ultimately, our candidacy would not necessarily impact the result of the National Rally. On the other hand, it is perhaps important to maintain an NFP candidacy in the constituency to offer a way to the left for those who would not want to vote for either the right or the far right, for those who would want to abstain…
- Aren’t you afraid of encouraging the split of votes and the candidacy of the National Rally?
It is estimated that in terms of the RN’s reserve of votes, it does not have much room for improvement, while Antoine Vermorel enjoys the status of “republican front” and risks benefiting from a lot of transfers from people who are afraid of the RN or who would come from the left camp. However, in our constituency, many voters want neither Vermorel nor Granger.
- Your position, which goes against the grain of the discussions this Monday morning, has shattered the unity of the New Popular Front in Roannais, with the PS and the PC calling for a vote in favour of the outgoing MP…
The Socialist Party and the Communist Party are perhaps really afraid that the National Rally will pass and, as a result, they believe that my candidacy risks blocking Vermorel’s victory. We don’t think so. The left-wing parties have been blocking the far right since 2002 and it has never had such high scores! It is on the threshold of power. We are here to tell the people who are going to suffer the wrath of the RN and the liberation of xenophobic speech: We are here, here for the people of the neighborhoods, here for the people who defended Palestine, for those who want retirement at 62, who want to increase the minimum wage to 1,600 euros… We are a voice of popular and democratic expression.
“Allow the left to speak out in the second round”
- Last Sunday you got a score below what you had hoped for (18.35%), lower than two years ago (20.35%). Is your candidacy purely symbolic or do you believe in a possible victory?
I will give a double answer: on the one hand, as long as the election day is not over, nothing is decided… But on the other hand, indeed, we are rather on a symbolic side. We must also allow the left to express itself in the second round, so that the debate is not monopolized between the xenophobic right and the authoritarian extreme right. In addition, we are suffering the depoliticization of precarious people, tired of this type of politics. We are offering them an alternative.
- How does the rest of the campaign look?
Our strategy will be to go and meet people, to try to convince all the people in working-class neighborhoods not to vote RN and to give us a voice to show that in Roanne, they are not alone. There are people who are on the left, who want change, not from the right but from the left. We will come together and we will be there tomorrow, and the day after tomorrow and the day after tomorrow…
“There are people who are on the left, who want change, not from the right but from the left”
- How will you work with the other left-wing parties? The post-legislative period looks very complicated…
We’ll see. Our candidacy is not necessarily decisive for the continuation of negotiations or actions that there would be with the other left-wing parties. Perhaps another personality will take the head of France Insoumise and will work very well with the other parties if I really am unapproachable.
If we want to defend a program of rupture, we will have to be solid in our convictions. And we are straight in our boots, even if we are under a lot of pressure, we have to manage fear, the wrath of others, we remain solid.
Interview by Aurélie Marchadier
The unity of the New Popular Front is cracking in Roanne
They don’t understand. And they call for a vote for the Republican candidate. The Socialist Party and the Communist Party did not appreciate Ismael Stevenson’s approach. And they make it known.Members of the New Popular Front during the presentation of the joint program to the press. POV
For Johann Cesa (First Federal Secretary of the PS Loire): “Ismaël Stevenson made a mistake. He got a lower score than last time and he has no possible transfer of votes.
“We are in complete opposition to maintaining his candidacy, I told him on the phone, and we maintain our call to block the National Rally.”
Johann Cesa
It is not a pleasure to call for a vote for Antoine Vermorel-Marques, but we must distinguish between political adversaries and enemies of the Republic.”
The same reaction came from Christine Chevillard, secretary of the Roanne section of the Communist Party: “We do not agree with this way of proceeding. In the morning, all the Roanne political forces of the New Popular Front met and agreed to withdraw Ismaël Stevenson’s candidacy. And in the afternoon, the LFI leadership took the opposite decision?”
“We can’t work under these conditions. No, it doesn’t work like that.”
Christine Chevillard
“We call on people to vote for Antoine Vermorel-Marques, the candidate best placed to block the National Rally. When the time comes, all the left-wing political forces in Roanne will have to sit down around the table, explain themselves, and clarify things. We cannot work together if decisions systematically come from Paris, without taking into consideration local decisions, those best placed to know the political situation in the area,” she believes.
Interview by Karl Pasquet
Antoine Vermorel-Marques castigates Ismaël Stevenson’s “lack of courage and sincerity”Antoine Vermorel-Marques, here during a public campaign meeting, deplores a “lack of courage” from the LFI candidate. KP
The outgoing MP for Roannais, who came out on top in the first round of the legislative elections, is cautious about maintaining Ismaël Stevenson’s candidacy. The Republican candidate does not hesitate to attack his political opponent head-on: “People who are capable of saying in the morning “I’m withdrawing” and in the afternoon “oh no, finally I had a call from Jean-Luc Mélenchon, I’m staying”, that’s what we call the absence of courage and sincerity in politics”.
“One goal is to cause trouble”
Nevertheless, Antoine Vermorel-Marques was keen to dissociate France Insoumise from the other political forces that make up the New Popular Front, which have clearly called for support for his candidacy to block the far right: “This is the big difference between the Insoumis and the left-wing republican forces. What I experienced for two years in the hemicycle, we are experiencing today in Roannais. The Insoumis have only one goal, which is to wreak havoc in the country and destroy the institutions. And even those who seem the most respectable, and I thought Ismaël Stevenson was one of them, show that they are people who are at the beck and call of their party president.”
Interview by Karl Pasquet
“Good news” for the RN candidate
The fact that Ismaël Stevenson is still in the second round is “good news” for the National Rally candidate in the fifth constituency of the Loire. “I was in favor of him staying in the race,” reacts Sandrine Granger. “I don’t see why he would give up his place so that people might vote for Mr. Vermorel, given that their ideas are not the same.” According to the candidate who came in almost six points behind Antoine Vermorel-Marques in the first round on Sunday, the candidate of the New Popular Front must think that the RN candidate has no chance of winning, “otherwise he would have withdrawn.” But “anything is possible,” she wants to believe.
P.-F.C.
