While the New Popular Front is experiencing dissension due in particular to the choices concerning the candidates nominated by La France insoumise, Jean-Luc Mélenchon remains firm on the decisions taken by his party, within which he retains a preponderant place.
Faced with criticism, he defends “political coherence” and “loyalty”. The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon addressed in an interview with 20 Minutes published this Saturday, June 15, the controversies raised by the decisions of his movement on the subject of investitures.
Former relatives within the rebels and party figures have notably denounced the “purge” of outgoing LFI deputies critical of the internal management of the movement, with at the same time the retention in his northern constituency of Adrien Quatennens, close to Jean -Luc Mélenchon convicted of violence against his ex-partner.
No “lifetime investitures”, Quatennens “has been tried”
“Investigations for life do not exist”, justified the leader of the rebels in particular regarding the five LFI deputies who were not reinvested, including Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido and Danielle Simonnet.
“But political coherence and loyalty in the first left-wing parliamentary group are also a requirement to govern,” he added, welcoming an electoral committee which has “worked a lot”.
Concerning the Adrien Quatennens case, Jean-Luc Mélenchon believes that he “was judged and he served his sentence” while at the same time being “punished in the group [insoumis à l’Assemblée nationale, NDLR] and in movement.
“Now some are adding a penalty of ineligibility under the threat of making everyone lose. I am dismayed,” he shared.
Adrien Quatennens is LFI candidate for the 1st constituency of the North. The PS and the Ecologists did not wish to support the elected LFI who was sentenced in December 2022. Facing him will be the feminist activist and jurist Amy Bah, member of the Nous Tous collective.
“You prefer a man who hits his wife, perpetrator of domestic violence, to comrades who have the impudence to have a disagreement with the great leader”, notably denounced the outgoing rebellious deputy François Ruffin against the leadership movement.
“Matignon is not an existential subject”
Beyond this disagreement, the elected official from the Somme has one thing in common with Jean-Luc Mélenchon: the fact that their two names are circulating on the left to become Prime Minister in the event of a victory for the left in the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7.
If he recently said he was “capable” of becoming head of government, but did not “impose himself”, the chief rebel specifies in this exchange published by 20 Minutes that “Matignon is not a existential subject” and that he is “not building a career”. In this respect, he praises the “capable leaders” within LFI, citing in particular Manuel Bompard, Mathilde Panot and Clémence Guetté.
