In the discussions for the New Popular Front, on the places as on the program, the NPA-l’Anticapitaliste was considered as the fifth wheel of the carriage… Parachuting Philippe Poutou into a constituency where the NPA was weakened did not necessarily correspond to our wishes or our practices, out of respect for the militant forces of the New Popular Front of Aude.
Oyes but, here, it is a land of the left and of solidarity, that of the winegrowers’ struggles in 1907 or in the 1970s, that of Pilpa and Belle Aude in recent years, that of the Salsigne mines in the early 2000s It is also the land where Blum was parachuted and elected to Narbonne in 1929 and which voted against Pétain’s full powers. In short, this land suits us so well!
Mission impossible ?
Of course we are faced with an outgoing RN deputy who is riding the despair of part of the population. We are also facing a left divided by the maneuvers of Carole Delga. Finally, the NPA is weighed down by the disgusting accusations of all the reactions on our supposed anti-Semitism and apology for terrorism while this circo is that of the attacks of Trèbes and Carcassonne in 2018. An episode of Mission Impossible? We remembered that Tom Cruise always wins in the end and that we have an advantage in our hands that he doesn’t have. We are supported by a large Aude activist base which includes a significant part of the PS, the PC, the Greens, LFI, made combative by its rejection of the RN and able to impose its desire for unity on the apparatuses.
In a few hours the question of the parachuting, of the legitimacy of our candidates, was ironed out between the local teams of the different components of the NFP and the local NPA comrades, from Toulouse and Bordeaux, and the comrades from almost everywhere who came to support as and when throughout the campaign.
A campaign that resembles us
We are running out of time and we are starting from further than the others: we are not subscribing to the legislative elections and even less to fighting to win them! But because hundreds of activists, whether registered or not, believe in it and show enormous commitment, we managed in a few days to launch a campaign that resembles us, which highlights local struggles and issues, and to sort out details that aren’t details: find premises, collect equipment, accommodate reinforcements from other cities, meet Aude associations and unions…
The place is always full, for a few hours or several days, activists we don’t know come door to door, informing us about local initiatives… Shall we organize an impromptu activist drink for the music festival? 200 comrades come to the local in the evening… and it sticks and it constantly differs: more than 40,000 leaflets distributed mid-campaign and our posters are visible everywhere.
Philippe Poutou and Pauline Salingue multiply meetings and trips: popular neighborhoods of Carcassonne, dispute in front of the hospital, antifa and feminist demonstration, round table with the CGT or the Conf Paysanne, Palestine demonstrations, meeting with producers or wine growers, visit to a Scop, farmers’ markets and garage sales, demonstrations against concrete construction… Above all, it is surrounded by activists and historical executives from other organizations who make the link with their networks and greatly facilitate our knowledge of the issues in Aude that We move forward.
Why give us the keys to the truck?
Because it grows behind. It’s growing so much that the dissident candidate, supported by Carole Delga, the PS boss of the Occitanie region, is increasingly isolated. The base is pushing the devices because it can no longer take the RN deputy, Christophe Barthès, who has not usurped his title of « you trumped occitan »: he surfs on the victims of the attacks; he prevents an eco meeting posing in front of a sexist and insulting sign sending Sandrine Rousseau and Marine Tondelier to go “make soup”; he multiplies fake news and climate-skeptical statements.
Only numbers can push back the uninhibited RN of Barthès. It’s growing because it’s no longer possible to tolerate the anger of the population of one of the poorest departments being diverted again and again against racialized people, women, LGBTI+ people…
So, nothing is gained. On the contrary. The divisions here are enormous and the hostility is sometimes significant, but we are fighting the battle with all those who push for something else! We will be in the second round and then… then we will try to show that, all together, we are putting misery on Tom Cruise!
