This Monday, December 16, a collective called “Perpignan Otherwise” was launched by around a hundred people, including representatives of the PS, the PCF, and the center, with a view to the 2026 municipal elections. An initiative against the RN from the 1st round which does not delight the ecologists and LFI, who would prefer a union of the New Popular Front parties.
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The rumor had been circulating in the streets of Perpignan for several days. It is now official: a call to bring together the left and the center is launched by a collective called “Perpignan Otherwise”, with a view to the next municipal elections scheduled for March 2026. Objective: to try to weigh in against the outgoing Louis Aliot and its teams, by proposing “an alternative“.
Around the table, for a first press conference, the Socialist Party (Xavier Florimond), the Communist Party (Françoise Fiter), as well as Jean-Baptiste Llati, for the former list without label led by Clotilde Ripoull in the 2020 Municipal Elections . “The goal is co-construction. We want a city that is more united, more human, more progressive,” explains Jean-Baptiste Llati, initiator of the Perpignan Otherwise movement.
So for him, if there is to be a union, there is no question of it being limited to the left, facing the outgoing National Rally. Even if it means making concessions: “JI think we have no choice. I believe that everyone must take their responsibilities, citizens and parties alike. If we want to be able to offer something to the people of Perpignan, we will have to make this effort of compromise and a fairly broad union.“.
The main objective is to get along, to come together. It is the desire to be able to offer an alternative.
Jean-Baptiste Llati,Initiator of the Perpignan Otherwise movement
According to him, “this call today“will allow other parties”to position oneself“. The initiator of the movement also considers that France Insoumise and the right would be welcome in this union, and that they “are intended to enter into the prism of this call. After, it is up to them or not to decide whether they are interested in this approach. And if they are also ready to make concessions“.
One thing is certain to the taste of all those present for this first gathering of “Perpignan Otherwise”: “it is utopian to hope to win without union“.
The tone is set among the signatories of “Perpignan Otherwise”: for the moment, it is the gathering before the program. A project which does not suit the Ecologists and France Insoumise, who for the moment reject the idea of a “republican front” from the first round, a strategy which “doesn’t hold up“. “What we want is an agreement from the New Popular Front, and if there is a Republican Front it will be a second round strategy“, comments Mickael Idrac, LFI candidate in the last European elections.
The rebellious Mickael Idrac, former candidate for the European elections, rejects the idea of this grand alliance.
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© France Télévisions
He believes that the Perpignan Otherwise movement, launched by a “loose leaf“whose they”were not recipients“, is the initiative of a “lone rider“. According to him, by allying “with the centrists, the macronists, even the right, we will lose the confidence of the voters“.
What we want is a disruptive program at the municipal level. We are not managers, but politicians.
Michael Idrac,Former LFI candidate for the 2024 European elections.
Mickael Idrac therefore calls on socialists and communists to “return to reason, to the united left“, and not to fall into “a political mess where we will have difficulty creating a program“He says, however, that he has hope.”to be together with environmentalists for the next municipal elections“. The race to try to beat the team of outgoing mayor Louis Aliot is in any case well and truly underway.
