Should the end of the Nupes now be considered? The question may more than ever arise this week during the back-to-school summer universities of the four leftist formations, which will see if they can overcome their many points of disagreement. The socialists in Blois, the ecologists in Le Havre, the communists in Strasbourg and the Insoumis near Valence: each will launch on his side, but at the same time, this new political season.
“Summer universities have identity logics for the parties: the game is to draw attention to oneself. They set the tempo for the start of the school year. The question of the Nupes will necessarily be addressed, it is essential “, explains political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, believing that it is “very likely that certain leaders do not play appeasement”. The 2023/2024 political season which is taking shape will be punctuated in particular by two elections: the senatorial elections in September then the European elections in June.
A “double talk” within the Nupes?
Two stumbling blocks for the left alliance. Recently, despite the summer break, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Manuel Bompard again denounced the “double talk” of their allies, Manuel Bompard going so far as to accuse Act II of the Nupes of being “blocked by the refusal to ( their) partners to move forward”. In their sights in particular, an alliance excluding LFI for the first deadline and the designation by the Greens and the Communists of their own leaders for the second.
The occasion of a skirmish on X (ex-twitter) between Olivier Faure and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from which it emerged that the links between the two left-wing leaders are currently non-existent. “We have the feeling that LFI assumes that all this is over and that they want to blame the partners,” said a communist official to AFP. Another dissonance, more symbolic: the treatment reserved for the rapper Médine, invited Thursday to the summer universities of Europe Ecology – The Greens and Saturday to those of La France insoumise.
If his invitation, tainted by accusations of anti-Semitism, caused confusion among the Greens, thus putting pressure on Marine Tondelier, it seems to have gone much better among the Insoumis. “Medina is not racist”, assured Jean-Luc Mélenchon, targeting the “subject to what will be said of the hypocrites” who are among the “opponents” of Macronism. There is no doubt that the reception reserved for the rapper in Le Havre and near Valence will be very different.
“Bazooka Attack”
Despite these palpable tensions – “any criticism is taken as a bazooka attack” regrets the communist leader – the different parties have taken care to invite each other to their summer universities and to the Fête de l’Humanité, the other communist high point of the new school year. On the program in particular, several conferences relating to the future of the left, in particular a session at the “AmFis” of LFI entitled “A new breath for the NUPES!”, and bringing together a representative of the four main parties of the Nupes, that the leader communist Fabien Roussel found “outdated” from the month of April.
Perhaps this conference will give an overview of the back-to-school seminar scheduled for September for the deputies of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union, around Julien Bayou (EELV), Benjamin Lucas (Génération-s), Jérôme Guedj ( PS), Elsa Faucillon (PCF) and Danielle Simonnet (LFI). The opportunity may be to relaunch the parliamentary version of this alliance, which is, in general opinion, the one that has worked best.
“The union of the left was not born with the Nupes. It is not by reproducing what it was in 2022 that the left will win: we must invent another form of union, to cross a leap qualitative,” said the communist official. With the review scheduled for the fall on the immigration bill, the left will seek to forget its divisions to better mark its opposition to the government.
A serenity that the parties will need even internally: within the Socialist Party, Carole Delga, PS president of the Occitanie region fiercely opposed to Nupes, will sulk the meeting.