“Silence, consternation then explosion of anger”: Monday, more than a thousand rebellious activists and Nupes sign a grandstand in The world, to denounce the decision of the movement to exclude only temporarily from its parliamentary group the deputy Adrien Quatennens, condemned for domestic violence. Since the verdict of the trial and the decision of LFI, anger has been organized in the rebellious ranks and press releases from action groups have rained down on social networks, to express their refusal to see Adrien Quatennens return to the Assembly and to denounce the operation of the movement.
“We call on activists to insubordination,” say the signatories, denouncing a “vertical system that favors the protection of senior executives at the expense of activists and programs”. Suspended for four months from his group in the National Assembly in the wake of his conviction, at the beginning of December, to a four-month suspended prison sentence for “violence” on his wife, the deputy from the North had declared himself the victim of a “media lynching” and refused to resign.
Avoid a militant hemorrhage
Since the start of this affair, La France Insoumise (LFI), the party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon – who came third in the presidential election and of which Adrien Quatennens is one of the most loyal lieutenants – has been shaken by the turbulence. “We are asking for a fairer internal democracy where the representatives will be appointed and legitimized by the activists and not essentially by the circle restricted by the national office”, write the signatories of the forum. A rise to the public and national niche that the initiators of this forum consider inevitable. “I have a lot of friends who get messages saying ‘you better sort this out internally.’ But we have already tried and it did not work, ”regrets Gabin Plantet, signatory of the tribune and member of the Young insoumis de Poitiers.
In total, around twenty collectives stamped France insoumise have publicly expressed their anger, according to a count of the Discord Insoumis, a collective which brings together nearly 17,000 people on discussion channels. A “strike” which does not consist of ceasing all activity, as Gabin explains, but rather “of no longer displaying itself under the LFI banner, as long as there is Adrien Quatennens”. “We remain focused on pensions,” he hastens to clarify.
“Any internal criticism is equated with a desire to break the party or even outright to roll for Macron”, regrets a co-host of a Strasbourg group. “We will not go further than the militant strike”, explains the Discord Insoumis. But “we think that excluding definitively and as soon as possible Adrien Quatennens from the parliamentary group would make it possible, precisely, to avoid arriving at a militant hemorrhage”.