Former Socialist presidential candidate Ségolène Royal announced on Friday her intention to lead a left “union” list with LFI in the next European elections, for which the Greens and the Communists have already designated their own list leaders. “It is a question of launching a dynamic of union”, declared Ségolène Royal in front of the press, during the summer universities of La France insoumise. Could she lead this list herself? “That’s the idea,” she replied, adding that she had been thinking about this project since “before the summer”.
“We will show them that there is an alternative”
“I am going into a dynamic of convergence”, with in particular LFI and the young socialists, who have come out in favor of a common list in the European elections in June, declared Ségolène Royal in particular. “We need a just order in Europe (…) We will show them that there is an alternative”, she said again to the press, defending herself from any “backtracking”. “The cause we defend is bigger than us,” she said.
Except that after the ecologists and the communists, who have already designated their respective heads of lists for the European elections, the socialists are in turn preparing to leave alone. The boss of the PS Olivier Faure thus indicated on Friday that he did not see “what would make it possible to hope for a single list” of the Nupes, the left-wing alliance formed for the legislative elections of 2022. “We need a list of the Nupes to the Europeans”, reacted the leader of LFI, Manuel Bompard, after the announcement of Ségolène Royal.
“Anger needs to be expressed, to make noise”
“As for the head of the list (…) it must be able to unite the forces of Nupes and carry its program,” he added. “If the left is not united in the next European (…) it will disappear, it will have been so disappointed in its division”, had estimated a little earlier the former socialist minister, during a debate with Manuel Bompard. This exchange with the Marseille deputy was an opportunity for Ségolène Royal to be warmly applauded several times by rebellious activists, in particular when she welcomed the opposition of the Nupes to the pension reform at the start of the year.
“Anger needs to be expressed, to make noise,” she said. During her day with the Insoumis in the Drôme, Ségolène Royal also exchanged with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whom she had supported last year during the presidential election.