“Oh, that’s clear! They would be unavoidable”. The answer is obvious for this leader with a socialist feather: if Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the rebels put a few drops of water in their wine, would they be the kings of oil? The strategic question has occupied, obsessed, even vampirized for months the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (Nupes). With this observation: while the first six months of 2023 were played out on the economic and social terrain, with a movement against the pension reform if not successful, at least popular, the left does not emerge strengthened. If we stick to the voting intentions in the event of legislative elections, or for a Nupes list for the Europeans, the needle has not moved… for a year. The Nupes sails between 25 and 26%, as in the legislative elections of June 2022.
According to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, finding himself in this situation after a year which, it is true, has not been easy, is more like a miracle, as he explained to 20 minutes early June. For the rebellious, it is the permanent bashing of the macronists, the far right and the media that causes the Nupes to stand still. And we prefer to see the glass half full: for months, while the macronists have settled down and the RN is progressing a little, it is the Nupes which is at the top of the voting intentions. It is a fact, but it does not necessarily correspond to the political dynamics of the moment.
“We all have a label on our back”
The majority, in the first place, played very well the day after the legislative elections. “We managed to stick the label of bordélisateurs, obstructors on them, welcomed a Parisian Macronist deputy several months ago. And it will stick to their skin. A bit like when they stuck the amateur label on us in 2017, it worked well too…”
Since then, the situation has worsened considerably for the Nupes, to the point that some see the alliance of the left as demonized, even more repulsive than the extreme right. “The strategy of demonization on the part of such a hated power, I’m not sure it works”, quips Mathilde Panot. The president of the LFI group in the Assembly then takes refuge behind the 70 pages of the balance sheet of her training during this first year of office. Except that from this work, nothing emerges in the media.
“From the moment the idea of the brothel is the subtitle that is put to everything we do by the macronists or the RN, it hurts. It may be unfair, but it harms politically, “believes a rebellious, believing that his group is now forced to change gear. “We all have a label on our backs, he is a classic figure in political life, swept Jean-Luc Mélenchon in early June. Afterwards, the question that is asked is whether it serves or serves. However, for us, the number one issue is popular support. »
Keep in touch
This adhesion goes through the “We are here” strategy. “We keep the flame going, we’re there, whatever happens,” explains Manuel Bompard, LFI’s coordinator. As soon as we have an opportunity, we try to create the conditions for mobilization. Sometimes we are 300, sometimes 3 million, but we are there. Being this benchmark, this loudspeaker at maximum volume, is, according to him, the condition for keeping in touch with the working classes. Working classes that he considers, not without reason, to have partly brought back to the polls and to the left in 2017, and especially in 2022. And too bad if the left-wing bourgeoisie groans and moves away, it will come back to vote useful in time wanted: Manuel Bompard “assumes to say that it is with the working classes that we must not lose contact. Because if you lose them, you lose them for twenty years! »
Elsewhere on the left, some subscribe to the injustice of the bashing of the rebellious. And relativize: “it’s been the great thing of the French right for a long time, the PS knew it before 1981: in their eyes, the left is illegitimate to govern the country”). But we find this analysis a bit Manichean. And we do not believe that the path of the Nupes to victory goes through the “simple” mobilization of abstainers from the working classes. “We must solidify our base, then go see the side of the left that we have not convinced, then finally on the side of the electorate in the center, which once allowed the PS to govern this country. »
Double-dealing ?
With their 19% in 2017, and their 22% in 2022, the rebellious are not there and leave the argument of electoral authority. And then we should not give reason to François Ruffin, also favorable strategy more mezzo voce. Worse: “They are brave! We have the impression that the more remarks are made to them about their behavior, the more they insist,” remarks a fatalistic socialist executive. So much so that some wonder if this is not proof that Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to get rid of the Nupes, which would hinder him in view of 2027.
“Yes he is fed up, judges a socialist deputy. He doesn’t want to be Mitterrand, he wants to be Jaurès, he wants to be the intellectual leader of the left. “When he quotes Adrien Quatennens in the candidates for his succession, he does not believe it. It just means he doesn’t care about the Nupes. That he’s the boss. It’s pure provocation! », Analyzes a rebellious deputy, a little annoyed, but loyal. “I find it incredible that those who want union all the time, starting with the Europeans, are seen as those who want to break the union! “, protests Mathilde Panot and many other rebellious. Perhaps in the matter, as with the strategy of “we are there”, which embraces too badly.