On this point at least, Fabien Roussel supports the position of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The national secretary of the PCF assures that the writings of the leader of LFI did not “shock” him. The former communist presidential candidate also considers the visit of the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives Nancy Pelosi to Taiwan to be a “provocation”.
“What he wrote did not shock me”, he said in Liberation on Monday, believing that “it is not excessive to say” that this visit, on August 4, was “anything but nuance and balance! »
“Everything must be done to avoid the slightest provocation”
“At a time when tensions in the world are very exacerbated, everything must be done to avoid the slightest provocation”, he adds, and it is therefore according to him “unwelcome for only one country”, in this case the United States, “decided on such an initiative to provoke an incident with China”.
In the midst of tensions between Beijing and Taipei, Jean-Luc Mélenchon considered in two successive blog posts, Thursday and Saturday, that Nancy Pelosi’s visit constituted “a provocation”. “There is only one China”, which “sits among the five permanent members of the UN Security Council”, and “Taiwan is a full component of China”, he assures – a term defended by the regime in Beijing but refused by the authorities in Taipei. “The Chinese will settle the problem among themselves,” he concluded.
Divergences of point of view within Nupes
His first post triggered a salvo of criticism in the ranks of EELV and the PS, allied with LFI and the PCF within Nupes, while the International Europe sector of the PCF used the same vocabulary as him, speaking of “provocation inconsistent in an already particularly dangerous world situation”. Jean-Luc Mélenchon however challenged Fabien Roussel, who had remained silent, in his second post, the leader of LFI wondering “where” he had “gone”.
At EELV, national secretary Julien Bayou denounced Friday “a fairly dated vision” and “a real cynicism in terms of geopolitics” on the part of Mr. Mélenchon, while the boss of the PS Olivier Faure judged that if “the opportunity of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan is questionable, the desire of Taiwanese to live in a democracy is not. Not new differences of opinion between members of the Nupes on international subjects and which “does not prevent (them) from working together”, explains Fabien Roussel.
A position criticized by the National Rally
At the National Rally, Louis Aliot, mayor of Perpignan and candidate for the presidency of the party, ruled on Monday that Jean-Luc Mélenchon had “indignation or selective support”. “He is always defending all self-determination movements all over the world (…), but when China, with Taiwan, carries out acts of intimidation, he is on the side of the Chinese dictator”, he told him. he reproached on Europe 1.
“In international law there is only one China but the fact remains that Taiwan has legitimate rights and that we must preserve this freedom that they have”, developed Mr. Aliot, judging that “France has every interest in talking to China, which is a big country, and in defending the interests of Taiwan”.