Jean-Luc Mélenchon will hold a “meeting for peace” on an esplanade in Lyon this Sunday, reviving the great outdoor masses of 2017, in the hope of dispelling the reproaches that part of the left has made to him about the war in Ukraine. . Difficult for the time being to assess the impact of this crisis on the dynamics of the Insoumis, for which voting intentions had previously climbed to 12.5% in some polls.
A busy week
But it is an understatement to say that Jean-Luc Mélenchon has had an eventful week since the war broke out. He first had to explain how he could have made the “error” of judging the Russian attack impossible, based on the statements of the Ukrainian president. He then defended himself against the tackles supported by his opponents on the left, the ecologist Yannick Jadot and Anne Hidalgo, who attributed complacency to him with Vladimir Poutine.
Boos at the National Assembly
In addition, he suffered boos during, probably, the last speech of his political career before the National Assembly, Tuesday, for having criticized the aid in war material to Ukraine. For the tribune, face closed, reading his notes without the usual oratorical flights, the moment seemed like a test. In the desire to discuss with Putin, “there is in Mélenchon, anti-American, the principle that the enemies of my enemies are my friends”, analyzes a figure of the rebellious galaxy.