In Isère, the NFP gathers around Lyes Louffok

The stagnation announced in Isère will not take place, on the left. The New Popular Front has, this Wednesday, October 6, only one candidate left in the first constituency of the department, where a by-election must take place in mid-January 2025.

The local candidate of the Socialist Party, Amandine Germain, announced her withdrawal in favor of Lyes Louffok, candidate nominated by France Insoumise, to whom the constituency falls according to the agreement of the 2024 legislative elections. In July, the insoumis Hugo Prévost had elsewhere won the seat, before being excluded from the movement and then resigning, following accusations of sexual violence brought against him.

“Disunity is not an option”

“Keeping this constituency must be the only objective that drives us”declared Amandine Germain, after a meeting on Tuesday evening, which brought together the socialists of Isère and the national leadership of the party. The departmental advisor, however, regretted “the intransigence of the NFP political apparatus”, whom she accuses of having “imposed” his candidate without consulting local forces.

The communists of the department also announce, in a press release, supporting the candidacy “who will wear the colors of the NFP”, or Lyes Louffok. “If the current sequence can lead us to question the forms of union, to allow better consideration of local realities and the voice of activists on the ground, disunity is not an option »affirms the Isère PCF.

Olivier Véran gives up

Note that a prior consensus had emerged, at the local level, around the Lucie Castets hypothesis, but the renunciation of the person concerned had reopened tensions around the right candidate to invest.

Already supported by the FI and environmentalists, Lyes Louffok now benefits from the approval of the four main forces of the NFP. At 29, this former foster child, tireless campaigner for reform of child welfare, will try his luck again in the deputy, after losing in Val-de-Marne this summer. He should notably face the Macronist candidate Camille Gaillard-Monier, former deputy of Olivier Véran. The former Minister of Health, beaten this summer by the NFP, declared that he would not run for “step back”.