The absence of certain figures of the movement within the new leadership has resurrected certain annealed hatreds. To the point of creating “two camps”.
By Sebastien Schneegans
© CHRISTOPHE ARCHAMBAULT / AFP
Published on
Iit was enough to reveal, Saturday, December 10, the names of the members of the new management body of La France insoumise (LFI) for the quarrels of ego, the annealed hatreds and the deep divergences on the functioning of the movement to reappear. The main figures of the movement – Clémentine Autain, François Ruffin, Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido and even Éric Coquerel, historical lieutenant of Jean-Luc Mélenchon – do not appear in the list and have not even, for the most part, been invited to the agapes, in Paris. Worse still, according to the main interested parties: the meeting place had been jealously kept secret and they learned of their “eviction” at the same time as the journalists.
The method of appointing the new leader also raises questions: Manuel Bompard, faithful among the faithful of Mélenchon who should soon be officially appointed national coordinator of the movement, was not elected by the militants but “appointed”, by consensus, by his comrades Rebellious. Clémentine Autain, who calls on one of Release to “democratize LFI”, immediately denounced “a method which silences all criticism”.
READ ALSOFrançois Ruffin, the other ambitious AmiensThe elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis regrets that “after three months of work behind closed doors and despite progress, the withdrawal and the locking [aient] were taken on brutally. François Ruffin, whom some of the LFI deputies, including Manuel Bompard, no longer support, sees it as a “consensus of a small group which has agreed with itself”. Monday morning, Bompard was content to retort that they were focusing on a “problem of the rich”, before asking them to “avoid spreading these discussions in the public square”.
“Two Sides”
“Ruffin not being listed was predictable. He knew it and plays the surprise. On the other hand, Clémentine Autain really fell from above. She wanted to be part of the communication department but the position was preempted by Sophia Chikirou. The split took place between a very limited circle of relatives of Jean-Luc who retain decision-making power and those who are considered to be potential rebels, ”deciphers an elected LFI. “There are clearly two camps, the decision-makers and the plague-stricken, fulminates another, on condition of strict anonymity. Mélenchon, who always pulls the strings behind the scenes, applies Lenin’s maxim to the letter: “The party strengthens itself by purifying itself.” »
Mélenchon, who always pulls the strings behind the scenes, applies Lenin’s maxim to the letter: “The party strengthens itself by purifying itself.”An LFI MP
“They react like that because they don’t know the movement. It is normal that there is a bonus for those who have been active in the movement for years, replies Gabriel Amard, deputy for the Rhône. Then, some should keep in mind that Jean-Luc is not part of the management. He will certainly be a member, like Clémentine and François if they wish, of a political council which will meet every month from January. But it should not be given other so-called powers. »
READ ALSOQuatennens affair, bullfighting: the Nupes pitchesSome, in the “camp” of elected officials chosen by Mélenchon, invite us to put the sequence into perspective. It would only be, they assure, a moment offering a platform to “a few deputies who need media light”. These reactions, they swear, will not impact the movement. Still, the creation of this new management body will have had an unexpected consequence: the rapprochement of François Ruffin and Clémentine Autain… With a view to the 2027 presidential election? “While they are not usually particularly close, they are talking quite regularly at the moment, observes a young rebel. It was perhaps a way for Mélenchon to test them by saying to them: “So, are you pouring out your ambitions in the press? ! But go ahead, no one is holding you back!” It might make them think…”