Jean-Luc Mélenchon affirms it: “I put myself in withdrawal, but not in retirement”. So in Grenoble, at the summer universities of insubordinate France, among the militants, many names circulate: François Ruffin, Adrien Quatennenens, Mathilde Panot or Manuel Bompard are the most cited to take up the torch. Stéphane, a rebellious activist recently, has a favorite. “I still have a slight preference for Ruffin, but because that’s the name, for people like me who don’t know that much, that comes up quite often. So I think it’s going to be one of those who will be the most unifying”, he explains at the microphone of Europe 1.
Quatennens big favorite of activists
But the name that stands out the most is Adrian Quatennens, nicknamed the natural heir by Thomas, a young activist. “Personally, for me, it would be Quatennens. Because I find that he has certain traits that Mélenchon has. He has a certain aura and he is quite dynamic. For me, he is a good speaker”, specifies he.
A woman at the head of the movement?
But among the Insoumis, we advocate feminism. It is only natural that Raphaëlle, a mother, would rather see a woman at the head of the movement, like Mathilde Panot or Clémentine Autain. “We never had a wife. Why not? And there are some who would do as well as some men,” she says.
Mélenchon refuses to decide, because for him, “there is no favorite or favorite, because that would mean that it is a question of replacing me. But we are not replacing Mélenchon. We are replacing functions, candidates, but a person is a person.
In private, one of the favorites admits to expecting two years of Darwinism to choose the new leader.