The European union of the left is not happening right away. Marie Toussaint “does not believe in irreconcilable lefts”, but deplored Tuesday on Public Senate “the brutalization of political life” on the left, demanding “clarity” from the head of the PS/Place publique list Raphaël Glucksmann and “from the moderation” to the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The head of the environmentalist list, credited with between 5.5 and 8% of voting intentions, who had advocated “gentleness” in politics, rejected any change of tone in her campaign, even if last Saturday at a meeting in Bordeaux, she attacked both camps, criticizing the “vagueness” of one and the “brutality” of the other.
A “non-aggression pact”
“I have always said that I refused the war of the left and that I refused that we build impassable gaps between the partners of the left,” recalled Marie Toussaint on Public Senate, emphasizing that she had “proposed a pact of non- aggression”, but had been “very alone in putting it on the table”.
“What happened since then?” Well, we have had a brutalization of political life,” she lamented, saying she wanted “that the left can work together” and can “debate without fighting”.
Socialists “voted for austerity”
“On Saturday, I asked the socialist list to act with clarity, that is to say to say what the socialists really voted for at European level, which is very different from what is unfortunately said in France” , she asserted, affirming that “European socialists voted for austerity, voted for mega-trucks, voted for the environmental unraveling of the Common Agricultural Policy”.
“I am afraid that the words used in France will create confusion about what the European socialist family is really voting for,” she added.
Mélenchon’s strategy is to “divide the left”
Regarding Jean-Luc Mélenchon, she asked him for “moderation”.
“Let us remain moderate, let us not prevent our ability to build together subsequently,” she said, judging that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, “he said it himself, is today not in European electoral campaign, but campaigning for his fourth presidential election and his strategy is to divide the left today to better unite it behind him.”
“I don’t believe in irreconcilable lefts,” and “I will put all my energy into ensuring that this is not the case,” she added.
