Image taken from a video from the YouTube channel of LFI deputy Adrien Quatennens announcing the withdrawal of his candidacy in Lille, June 15, 2024 (Adrien Quatennens Youtube Channel/AFP/Handout)
End of the game on the intentions of each other: candidates for the legislative elections in the 577 constituencies have until 6:00 p.m. to submit their declaration of candidacy to the prefecture, a step that will not be taken by Adrien Quatennens who gave up on Sunday morning to run in the north.
Convicted of domestic violence in 2022, and under pressure after his inauguration by LFI denounced by socialists and environmentalists, the outgoing deputy throws in the towel.
He does not want his candidacy “to be used” against the New Popular Front “at a time when all energy must be used to beat the extreme right”, he declared in a speech to the press in Lille .
Welcoming this decision, LFI announced that it would invest another candidate, Aurélien Le Coq. But feminist activist Amy Bah, supported by the socialist mayor of Lille Martine Aubry, who ran against Adrien Quatennens, maintained her candidacy.
Dissident candidates on the left, local alliances between the right and the majority, rallying of LR to the RN… everything must be recorded on Sunday evening, after several days of great confusion.
On the left, the offer has already been known since the formation of the New Popular Front which managed to agree in a few days on a program and candidates.
– Mélenchon “will never be the problem” –
But, the day after demonstrations against the far right which brought together, according to the authorities, 250,000 people throughout France, including 75,000 in Paris, this alliance, which brings together anti-capitalist Philippe Poutou and ex-president François Hollande, must further convince that it is capable of resisting the heterogeneity of its components.
The leader of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, on June 9, 2024 in Paris (AFP/Archives/Geoffroy VAN DER HASSELT)
First crisis, LFI refused to invest in the legislative elections several historical figures critical of the line of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, such as Danielle Simonnet, Raquel Garrido and Alexis Corbière, triggering the disapproval of socialists and ecologists.
But the tribune wanted to calm down a candidacy for Matignon which many do not want.
“If you think that I should not be Prime Minister, I will not be. I will never be the problem,” he declared on France 3. “It is up to the parties which constitute the coalition” of the left to “make the right decision”.
Former president and member of the PS, François Hollande, during a press conference to announce his candidacy for the legislative elections in Corrèze, June 15, 2024 in Tulle (AFP/Pascal LACHENAUD)
The day after the surprise candidacy of former President François Hollande in Corrèze under the banner of the New Popular Front, former Prime Minister Lionel Jospin (1997 to 2002) also defended the new union, the only “dike” , according to him, capable of containing the far-right party.
He also denounced in Le Monde the “arrogance” and “lightness” of Emmanuel Macron in his choice to dissolve the Assembly.
– Purchasing power –
At the center, after the rout of the Europeans and the “stunning” of the dissolution, the majority is trying to remobilize little by little under the leadership of Gabriel Attal.
Prime Minister Gabriel Attal during a campaign trip to Sainte-Luce-sur-Loire, near Nantes, June 14, 2024 (AFP/LOIC VENANCE)
On purchasing power, the first theme put forward by the French, the Prime Minister promised several measures on Saturday evening in the event of his camp’s victory: a reduction in electricity bills of 15% “from next winter” or an increase in the amount of the so-called “Macron” bonus, paid by companies to their employees, confirming that pensions would be indexed to inflation.
“I do not believe that announcing additional spending is the answer,” warned Sunday on LCI the president of MoDem François Bayrou, ally of the majority.
The latter, which is lagging far behind in the polls, is trying to broaden its base.
In the event of victory, “we will have to consider bringing together in a government personalities who were far from each other”, noted Mr. Bayrou.
– Local alliances –
De facto in several departments – such as that of the Prime Minister, Hauts-de-Seine – “non-aggression pacts” between the majority and the right seem to be put in place, and outgoing LR deputies will be assured of being able to apply without Macronist against them.
Supporters of the left wing of Macronie have reached out in La Tribune to the “social democratic friend” so that he rejects the New Popular Front, whose program is, in their eyes, a mixture of “demagoguery” and “inconsistency”.
The president of the Republicans (LR) Eric Ciotti speaks to the media leaving the party headquarters, June 13, 2024 in Paris (AFP/STEPHANE DE SAKUTIN)
On the LR side, the party is playing for its survival after the incredible week following the solitary choice of its president Eric Ciotti to ally with the National Rally.
Without condemning it morally, former president Nicolas Sarkozy denounced this alliance, a strategic error according to him, because the party risks becoming a simple “supplement” of the RN.
On the far right, the closing of applications will make it possible to judge the rallies led by the deputy for Alpes-Maritimes.
If the boss of the RN Jordan Bardella announced that there would be “a common candidate” “in 70 constituencies”, the Nice resident seems to have no national figure with him.
Jordan Bardella visiting a farm near Chuelles, June 14, 2024 in Loiret (AFP/Guillaume SOUVANT)
On the economic level, Mr. Ciotti, who has always presented himself as liberal, told the JDD that his positions were “absolutely not” incompatible with the RN while Jordan Bardella wants to remove the reform toughening unemployment compensation scheduled for the end of the year.
According to an Elabe poll for BFMTV and La Tribune on Sunday, one in three French people want a victory for the RN, one in four for the left alliance and one in five for Renaissance.
Marine Le Pen, whose sister Marie-Caroline applied for candidacy in Sarthe, declared that she would not demand the resignation of President Macron in the event of her camp’s victory.
© 2024 AFP
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