Invested candidate Nupes in the 14th district of the Rhône (Vénissieux), the journalist, who represented himself in the legislative elections after a first attempt in 2017, says “no longer able to fight” in the face of the criticisms of which he is the target. He decided to withdraw his candidacy.
Saturday, during the launch of the New Popular Ecologist and Social Union, known as Nupes, Taha Bouhafs strolled through the alleys of the Docks d’Aubervilliers. To the journalists he met, he told of his surprise. The 25-year-old young man knew well that his candidacy for the legislative elections, in the 14th district of the Rhône, would arouse controversy. The man who was sentenced at first instance for public insult after calling police trade unionist Linda Kebbab a“service Arabic” had prepared for the attacks but had not expected such an onslaught.
On the night of Monday to Tuesday, the journalist in struggles finally announced his withdrawal in a press release posted on Twitter. “I underestimated how powerful this system is when it wants to grind you down. I would have liked to hold on, I would have liked to make you proud. All of you who, like me, “are nothing”. You whom I described in my book, you who found in activism a reason to continue to hope, in this selfish world”, wrote the ex-candidate in a message published around 1:30 a.m.
“Are you perfect?”
“We were spectators, insures with Release the rebellious deputy Manuel Bompard, chief negotiator of Nupes. He was not yet invested but expected. I don’t have to regret his decision or not, but I regret the campaign that was waged against him.” “I discovered like you his press release. I take note of his decision. We can worry that the inhabitants of working-class neighborhoods, who certainly do not have calibrated speech, are subjected to slander campaigns”, meanwhile estimated Adrien Quatennens, the deputy La France insoumise, on Sud Radio. Same story on the side of Alexis Corbière: “It’s a big acknowledgment of failure, I take note of his decision and I respect it. […] What we want to do is for the National Assembly to reflect the people. Taha Bouhafs was the example of these social circles, far from politics, and which are committed and which are not always perfect. Are you perfect? Me no. It hurts me”, lamented the LFI deputy for Seine-Saint-Denis on France 2.
Taha Bouhafs withdraws his candidacy for the legislative elections. A mob attacked him. At 25, it’s hard to live with daily death threats and public accusations. I blame myself for not having been able to comfort him as much as necessary.
— Jean-Luc Melenchon (@JLMelenchon) May 10, 2022
Rebellious deputy of the Somme, François Ruffin for his part regretted Tuesday morning on France Info a withdrawal which reinforces the lack of diversity in the hemicycle. “What worries me is not that there is a Taha Bouhafs in the Assembly, it’s that there isn’t in the Assembly: how many workers? Zero. How many masons? Zero. How many maintenance workers? Zero.”
Other leaders of Mélenchon’s Popular Union (Aurélie Trouvou, Thomas Portes, etc.) denounced the combination of a “class contempt” and a “race contempt” towards Bouhafs. Doors even accusing “some on the left” to be “unleashed” on the now ex-candidate.
Conspired by Roussel
Since the announcement of his candidacy, the choice to invest Taha Bouhafs was indeed controversial, including on the left. If Julien Bayou, national secretary of Europe Ecology-The Greens regretted this withdrawal, qualified “collective failure”adding that“he would have made (and perhaps will one day make) a very good MP. Take care Taha” on the socialist and communist side, there is no hurry to comment publicly on the affair, especially among the latter, who are even considered by some to be primarily responsible. On Monday, Fabien Roussel had questioned the candidacy of the journalist: “I do not understand that LFI can present someone who was convicted at first instance for racial insult”, declared the national secretary of the PCF on France 2.
The Bouhafs case reveals the tensions between rebels and communists. The former partners, each on their side for the presidential election, found themselves without really forgiving each other. The speech of Fabien Roussel, muse of the left “anti-woke” has a little trouble agreeing with that of his partners.
“Nice Roussel, it looks like he contributes a little more each day for the rally”, quips an LFI leader, noting that the dissident candidate and communist mayor of Vénissieux, Michèle Picard, is defended by Roussel. This same rebel does not feign surprise: “[Roussel] takes up the terms of the extreme right on Bouhafs and, in reality, it corresponds rather to the presidential campaign he made. When he explained that LFI dealt with the “radicalized fraction of peripheral districts.” Corbière warned him on Tuesday on France 2: “I do not deny that we are men and women of character and Fabien Roussel is a leader and a political fighter. But I invite everyone not to exacerbate what, here or there, is friction, because I don’t see the point.
Arcom and the journalism ethics council seized
Bouhafs was indeed found guilty, on September 28 by the Paris Criminal Court, of public insult and not of“racial slur” as Roussel asserted. In a tweet from May 6Taha Bouhafs had indicated that he had filed a series of complaints against each person who had him “defamed” Where “injured”. He also pointed out that he had seized Arcom (ex-CSA) and the journalism ethics council “for the last two weeks of relentless campaigning without any contradiction or right of reply”.
The Communist leaders of the 14th district of the Rhône did not delay sending a press release to BFMTV in which they congratulated themselves that “reason has it[it] swept away» with the withdrawal of this candidacy. And to immediately call on the Nupes to support Michèle Picard, already a candidate in 2017 (10.45% of the vote) and designated by the local communists as “the candidate who can bring together the whole left”. The PCF mayor had decided to present herself as a dissident after the investiture of Bouhafs. Manuel Bompard, warns: “It is indeed a rebellious candidate who will be invested. It is up to each political family to choose its candidates and the others must respect it. If the Communists do not support our candidate for Vénissieux, that will mean that they do not respect the agreement and we will have to draw the conclusions that go with it.
Update at 5 p.m. with the reaction of the Communists of the Rhône, François Ruffin, LFI executives, Manuel Bompard and Julien Bayou