INTERVIEW – Political scientist and former executive of La France Insoumise before abruptly breaking with Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2019, Thomas Guénolé provides the keys to the confrontation between Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Ruffin which has lasted for years.
A violent and merciless confrontation. Long underground, the conflict between Jean-Luc Mélenchon and François Ruffin exploded this summer during the legislative elections, when the editor-in-chief of Fakir slammed the door on La France Insoumise against a backdrop of strategic and personal disagreements. In a book published on Wednesday, September 11, the latter now accuses his former party of communitarian practices and of neglecting part of the working-class electorate. Three years before the presidential election, the two figures of the radical left are opposed on their electoral strategy and the reconquest of the working classes. With, in their sights, the leadership of the left. Analysis by Thomas Guénolé, political scientist and former Insoumis executive.
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Challenges – What is at stake behind the confrontation between François Ruffin and Jean-Luc Mélenchon?
Thomas Guénolé – Beyond personal rivalries, there is a real fundamental disagreement on the strategy for the presidential election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon built his successes in 2017 and 2022 by relying on a starting base composed of the hard core of the anti-system left (the PCF, the NPA, Lutte Ouvrière, etc.), which he siphoned off and reduced to almost zero. Starting from there and benefiting from the electoral fragmentation of the left, he was able to recover the “useful vote” of the left in the final stretch of the election. Which led him to 19.6% of the vote in 2017. But on that occasion, he also realized that he would not be able to do more by confining himself to a classic left-wing electorate. The last points were too difficult to win from the center-left, which was more tempted by a candidate from the central bloc like Macron. So he decided to turn to two new electorates: young people and high-abstentionists of Maghreb origin. That is why he invested heavily in youth issues, notably by promoting a Louis[…]
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