Jordan Bardella proposes a debate to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and wants to corner the left

POLITICS – What will televised political debates look like by Sunday? The day after the first round of the legislative elections which saw the RN camp triumph, the president of the National Rally (RN) Jordan Bardella proposed this Monday, July 1, a live joust with Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“After this first round, two choices are available to the French. I am therefore ready to debate with Jean-Luc Mélenchon”he wrote on X (formerly Twitter). A proposal that he reformulated later in the morning, at the RN headquarters. “It could be a project versus project debate, between those who have a vocation to become Prime Minister. I call on the New Popular Front to emerge from ambiguity”he said, as you can see in the excerpt below.

This while the next political debate on the legislative elections will take place on Thursday July 4, on France Télévisions – we do not yet know if other television channels will also organize such an event. But this call for debate from Jordan Bardella, seemingly banal and even normal while the left bloc and the far right seem to be the two big winners of the evening, in reality strongly resembles a trap.

Firstly, because participation in the debates was divided up before the first round within the New Popular Front, and it is Marine Tondelier, the national secretary of the Ecologists, who is supposed to represent the left-wing coalition. “Am I to understand that you do not dare to argue with me? »she said in the direction of Jordan Bardella.

Then because Jordan Bardella knows perfectly well that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not the leader of the New Popular Front. On the left, Olivier Faure (PS), Marine Tondelier and Fabien Roussel (PCF) have constantly reminded us throughout the campaign that he “would not be Prime Minister” in the event of an NFP victory. “If he wants to be of service to the New Popular Front, he must step aside, he must be silent”former President François Hollande even said about Mélenchon.

“Mr Bardella is right, there is a need for a debate”

Jordan Bardella also knows that the former LFI candidate in the presidential election, who won 22% of the vote in 2022, is a scarecrow for some voters. In his working-class constituency of the Somme, François Ruffin explained last week that Jean-Luc Mélenchon “is an obstacle to the victory of the Popular Front”: “It’s not an endorsement, it’s something that repels voters.”

Traveling in the Rhône last week, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal specifically targeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, denouncing his “excesses” et “unbearable comments about our law enforcement”. Accusations that Jordan Bardella would inevitably take up in the event of a debate with Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The latter responded on his X account: “Mr Bardella is right, there is a need for a debate between the two projects for the French. » For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Manuel Bompard, coordinator of La France insoumise and Mathilde Panot, former president of the group, or Clémence Guetté, in charge of the program, are in his eyes better placed. At any rate, “the candidate of the New Popular Front for prime minister has not been designated”he also decides – the opposite of what Marine Tondelier may say.