This is one of the surprises of the summit meeting organized by Emmanuel Macron with the leaders of the parties on Wednesday evening: everyone stayed until the end, including the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) . At first, Manuel Bompard for LFI, Marine Tondelier for EELV and Olivier Faure for the PS had announced that they did not want to stay for dinner. Finally, it was a meal tray to continue the discussions. But still: some relatives of the three were surprised not to see their leader leave earlier, feeding the jokes into the message loops of several party leaderships.
Two days later, the parties on the left are all formal: it is not because it lasted twelve hours, and in a correct atmosphere, that they were coaxed. “I have already made this kind of appointment with Emmanuel Macron, I can see the style, assures the European deputy LFI Manon Aubry. Everyone speaks in turn, everyone does it respectfully and seriously. But we wonder what it can lead to. Social dinners aren’t really our style. On the green side, in “a republican approach, we are not opposed to this kind of discussion”, explains the spokesperson for EELV, Aminata Niakaté. But, like the others, she relativizes the scope of what appears to be a small presidential success: “Twelve hours of meetings which lead to the formation of working groups, it’s a bit light…”
Ecology and concrete
Except that on the side of the Elysée, enthusiasm is in order, and it has already been announced that a new meeting of the same type should soon be held. As of Thursday, Marine Tondelier, the national secretary of EELV, explained to 20 minutes it wasn’t so obvious. Above all, it will not be without conditions, for most left-wing parties. The head of the ecologists said she was almost bruised to have been the only one, she claims, to ask the questions of ecology, environmental protection and global warming. So for Aminata Niakaté, it’s clear: “for us to come back a second time, these questions must be clearly on the agenda this time. »
“We will not be able to come back if we have no concrete answer to our proposals”, says Manon Aubry bluntly, who specifies that Manuel Bompard said it at the end of the meeting. PS and PCF are more wait-and-see. The socialist Pierre Jouvet, “in the same vagueness after as before the meeting”, does not put as a distant condition “that it be used for something. If all this is just a big talk that happens every quarter, we will ask ourselves the question. We are waiting to see concrete work proposals on the table. Finally, the Parisian communist Ian Brossat recalls that his party is not, in principle, “a supporter of the policy of the empty chair”.
No trap
But after this first meeting seen as a small success for Emmanuel Macron, and with a second invitation that is heating up, haven’t the left-wing parties already got on a bandwagon? “We don’t feel like prisoners of anything!” says Ian Brossat. We went to this meeting in all lucidity and without any illusions. “If none of our proposals is heard or taken up, it won’t be harder to leave the second meeting than the first,” judge Pierre Jouvet. “We will not stay to hold the candle between the rights which will discuss a referendum on the migration question”, he adds.
In short, no trap or particular commitment, judge the left, especially since Manon Aubry believes that the Nupes (finally LFI, PS and EELV), played the game seriously, with its 14 proposals. “We made the choice to stay until the end to sweep everything away. Now the ball is on his side, not ours. The problem is that we see how above ground he is. The subjects we discussed, such as the cost of back to school and inflation more generally, are completely foreign to him. »
Finally, with the exception of the Communists – whom we feel more than moderately committed to the union of the lefts – what will partly decide them to return is the coordination with the rest of the Nupes. “We work together, we discuss it, it’s fluid”, assures Pierre Jouvet, who sees LFI, PS and EELV make their decision “in a common way”. And if Emmanuel Macron manages to streamline the coordination in the Nupes, it is therefore that the summit on Wednesday will not have been completely useless for the left.