As negotiations progress between the various leftist parties to seal an agreement for the legislative elections, disagreements appear. Especially among green tenors.
We could divide the left into two families. On the one hand, the optimists, those who swear that yes, yes, the discussions “are well advanced” with a view to a grand alliance for the legislative elections. Adrien Quatennens (LFI) is one of them. On the other, the killjoys, the spoilsports, those who break the mood a little, while the negotiations are getting tough this week. Here we find Yannick Jadot (EE-LV). “If this coalition does not respect the diversity and identity of its partners, it will be without me”, warned this Tuesday morning the green candidate eliminated in the first round with 4.63% of the vote. Should Jean-Luc Mélenchon be “Leader of the Left” to the legislative? “Nope”, replies Jadot. Should the different formations line up behind the rebels? “It will not work”, he said again. Just the former Greenpeace he specifies on France Inter that he “supports this coalition perspective, which must be very open”.
What anger, or at least incomprehension, within his party, especially among those who want the union. Without quoting him, the spokesperson for Europe Ecologie-les Verts Alain Coulombel replied to Jadot on Twitter. “Those who, within EE-LV, will scupper the agreement on the legislative elections with La France Insoumise in the name of so-called divergent values, will bear a heavy responsibility.” He adds : “Let’s stop despairing” the electors. Same fry on the line for Francis Poézévara, member of the national office of Génération s, the party founded by Benoît Hamon, member of the environmental pole, who supported Yannick Jadot in the presidential election, which displays his “total disagreement” with the ex-candidate. According to the elected representative of Puteaux, “it is indeed around the Popular Union that the voters of the left have chosen that the union should be made”. Ditto for Aurélien Taché, ex-LREM now co-president of the New Democrats and supporter of Jadot during the campaign, who indicates for his part that“a majority must be built around what Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposes“.
‘Old-fashioned disagreement’
The rebellious Adrien Quatennens was invited this morning on BFMTV. He had a smile. He and his people are in a strong position. He said : “We are reaching out. We want to set a course”. The deputy from the North repeated that the rebels did not want “not an old-fashioned opportunistic agreement between constituency distribution apparatuses”. What they want is “a strategic and programmatic agreement”. For this, Quatennens proposes “share the program of the Common Future to discuss it with others”. Because, he recalls, “He is the one who came in well ahead of the others in the presidential election”. He then pleads for a “all-out gathering of women and men wherever they come from and whatever their vote”.
Sandrine Rousseau, who had narrowly failed to qualify to represent her party in the presidential election, rather agrees with this proposal. Contrary to the position held by his former primary rival, Yannick Jadot a few hours earlier, Rousseau “recognizes the leadership of Mélenchon”. “He came first, it’s up to him to lead this coalition”, she assured on BFMTV. Before talking about this “anger in the people of the left that the staffs of the parties do not measure very well”. The ecofeminist, ex-number 2 of EE-LV, continues: “We have to live up to this anger. We have to change the lives of the French, that’s what we’re fighting for. We have to manage to put away the squabbles and make sure that we raise hope”.
The “Popular Union” as a common banner?
The race towards the legislative elections is not easy for Sandrine Rousseau; his personal case is not completely settled. It was invested by Europe Ecologie-les Verts in the 9th district of Paris, which covers a good part of the XIIIth arrondissement. Not without a stir, since Claire Monod, candidate in 2017, was also eyeing the nomination. First hurdle overcome. Except that, according to Mediapart, Rousseau was excluded from the provisional proposal for an agreement with the People’s Union. Whose fault is it ? Ecologists and rebellious pass the buck. According to a source quoted by the online media, “EE-LV is angry with Sandrine Rousseau, they are trying to settle their accounts, they want to sacrifice her in the name of the union”. What defends the national secretary of the party, Julien Bayou, who affirms that“She was in [leur] last request”.
For the union to be made in the legislative elections, several points are under discussion. The program, the distribution of the constituencies, but also the name of the common banner with which the campaign must be carried out. The rebellious Manuel Bompard recognizes that the Union Populaire can change its “subtitle” where “graphical charter”to be even more unifying and integrate the word “ecology”. The devil is in the details.