“Can someone tell him that this expression was invented by Jean-Marie Le Pen?”, reacted on Twitter the deputy LFI Manuel Bompard.
Several left-wing leaders denounced on Monday the use by government spokesman Olivier Véran, to criticize the Nupes, of the expression “watermelon left”, whose paternity is attributed to Jean-Marie Le Pen. “I know what the left is called – sorry, it’s not very nice to say that – the watermelon left, green outside and red inside, it’s above all LFI post-Trotskyism with a little green varnish around”, had criticized Sunday evening on LCI the minister by denouncing the attitude of the Nupes in the National Assembly.
“The left of government, the one that is capable of making difficult decisions (…), this left, I do not find it today in Nupes, there are in Nupes, they will reveal themselves , they will come off, at some point Mélenchon’s posture will be unbearable for them”, added the former socialist deputy (2012-2015). “Can someone tell him that this expression was invented by Jean-Marie Le Pen?”, reacted on Twitter the deputy LFI Manuel Bompard.
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An old expression of Le Pen which attests to the ‘trumpist’ slide of macronie
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“This kind of declaration, of a nag and simplistic anti-communism, taking word for word an old expression of Le Pen, attests to the ‘trumpist’ shift of macronie”, estimated the rebellious deputy Alexis Corbière. He sees it as the goal “to slander the Parliament constantly to justify the dissolution of the Assembly tomorrow”. “By dint of copying the words of the Le Pen family, they will end up copying their ideas,” added LFI MEP Manon Aubry on the same social network.
The First Secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, also reacted: “200 deputies who elect vice-presidents of the RN, a minister whose humor is photocopied from that of Jean-Marie Le Pen, a President of the Republic who digs into far-right concepts and it’s the left Nupes you’re worried about?” he tweeted. “1) It’s an expression of Jean-Marie Le Pen. 2) It’s good, watermelon”, mocked PCF spokesman Ian Brossat on Twitter.
“To take up a formula from Jean-Marie Le Pen, there they are. If the far right were not at the gates of power through their fault, it would only be pathetic. There, it’s dramatic”, worried the deputy Générations Benjamin Lucas, who sits in the environmental group. Socialist Senator Rachid Temal also reacted on Twitter, accusing the minister of “having Jean-Marie Le Pen as a reference…”. Now widely disseminated by its detractors, the expression “watermelon left” was first used by the former president of the National Front, Jean-Marie Le Pen, who, in May 1989, presented a cut-up watermelon on television to illustrate this what was, according to him, the ecologist party.