During the night from Friday to Saturday, a few hours after the presentation of the agreement of the left parties and the “break-up program”, five outgoing LFI deputies learned that they were not reinvested. Among them: Raquel Garrido, Alexis Corbière and Danielle Simonnet, rebels who criticized the strategy of excess and division of the three-time unsuccessful candidate in the presidential election, who would like to try his luck a fourth time. Another nocturnal surprise from the leader: the inauguration of Adrien Quatennens, convicted in 2022 for domestic violence, who will finally decide this Sunday to give up running.
“The far right is at our doors, our responsibility is historic, and what are the leadership of France Insoumise and Jean-Luc Mélenchon doing? A purge of deputies committed to unity”thundered Danielle Simonnet.
By dismissing these five elected officials, who nevertheless intend to run again without the banner of the New Popular Front, Jean-Luc Mélenchon hopes to isolate the last rebels in his camp, including François Ruffin and Clémentine Autain who also wish to run for office. 2027 presidential election.
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The deputy François Ruffin also denounced the “stupidity” and the “sectarianism” of the party leadership. “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.” “The far right is at the gates of power, an unprecedented gathering has just been formed on the left, and LFI has decided to fracture our movement and weaken the gathering”for her part reacted MP Clémentine Autain.
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The purge orchestrated by Jean-Luc Mélenchon also shows something else: the LFI leader is worried, because he is weakened, weakened, and not only internally. He must be annoyed at having lost a good number of constituencies to the benefit of his partners, particularly after the good score of the Place publique-PS list in the European elections. He must also have been irritated when Raphaël Glucksmann, the MEP who led this list to an honorable third place, set his conditions for joining the New Popular Front, including support for the European Union, support for Ukraine and condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7. These “red lines” were of course aimed at Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his disciples. And then, there are the surprise candidacies in the legislative elections of the former President of the Republic François Hollande and the former Macronist Minister of Health Aurélien Rousseau, which shift the cursor of the New Popular Front a little further towards the social democratic pole.
The balance of power could soon change on the left of the political spectrum. And this must make Jean-Luc Mélenchon nervous, especially since left-wing executives have been meeting for months to imagine a new project together, without the LFI leader and his lieutenants. The dissolution of the National Assembly thwarted their plans, but this may only be a postponement.
