Very present during the debates on pensions, the ex-presidential candidate tensed his allies of Nupes. If those close to him see it as a chance to mobilize against the lowering of the retirement age to 64, others are calling for things to calm down. Luc Mélenchon playing himself.
Strategy to slow down the pension bill, tensions with the Nupes and the unions, against a background of feeling that Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who nevertheless called to “be replaced”, is more present than ever.
The partners of La France insoumise, but also some elected officials from his own camp, are surprised by the hyperactivity of the former presidential candidate, without a mandate and now busy directing the La Boétie institute, which wants to train future political frameworks.
“We spent 8 days of debate in the hemicycle surrounded by tweets which interfere with what is happening there. It can obviously embarrass and raise questions”, admits the deputy Christophe Bex, close to François Ruffin, with from BFMTV.com.
“Our partners wanted to put pressure on us”
In his viewfinder: the day last Thursday at the National Assembly, which revealed in broad daylight the borders within Nupes. While the Communists, Socialists and Ecologists removed their amendments to speed up discussions and debate Article 7, which raises the retirement age to 64, the rebellious maintained theirs, not without hesitation.
Should we see the hand of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, very attached to this strategy which, according to those close to him, allowed the government not to be able to claim a vote for the reform which would have risked in the long term to demobilize the opponents of reform? No, says those around him.
“We had a lot of discussions with the LFI deputies on the subject before we all agreed”, says Antoine Léaument, Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s community manager for a very long time.
“Our Nupes partners wanted to put pressure on us to do like them and we assume this disagreement with them. We should not see much more”, still advances this thirty-year-old.
The call for a “clearer and more democratic” Nupes
In the wake of the withdrawal of the Communist amendments, Jean-Luc Mélenchon publicly reprimanded his left-wing partners. “Why rush to Article 7? The rest of the law doesn’t count? Can’t wait to get beat up?”, Writes the former presidential candidate on his Twitter account.
The strategy chosen by the rebels displeases, even among the Nupes deputies closest to LFI, like Sandrine Rousseau. Enough to push the ecofeminist to demand on the Public Senate a “clearer and more democratic Nupes” which must be embodied “in an act 2”. The elected Parisian does not hesitate to qualify Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s tweet as an “error”.
“Easier to blame us”
“Perhaps it’s easier to blame us than to recognize that, among our partners, some also wanted to stay on the same line as us”, retorts Ugo Bernalicis, one of the intimates of the founder of La France insoumise.
But half a word, a rebellious MP elected for the first time in 2022 nevertheless regrets the method. So far, the team between LFI and the other left-wing groups had held willy-nilly since its first months in the Assembly last June.
“We assume the conflict in the hemicycle and we have a different position than certain left-wing groups. But we must not point at each other. We will all lose in the end”, advances this parliamentarian.
A deeply revamped and less faithful group
It must be said that the ecosystem has changed rapidly within the LFI group at the National Assembly. From a small group of 17 deputies in 2017, most of them close friends of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the movement has grown to 75 elected officials, some of whom have only rarely met him and consider that they do not owe him their election.
“If you couple that with a left-wing intergroup with people who are not all LFI fans, that gives a lot of deputies who may have had enough of this protective shadow”, she translates again.
This sequence at the National Assembly also comes after very difficult months within LFI, after the Adrien Quatennens affair and internal turmoil linked to the reorganization of the movement, now coordinated by Manuel Bompard, an intimate of the founder of LFI.
“Pierced” by the Quatennens affair
Even early comrades, such as Alexis Corbière then distanced themselves from LFI’s new organization chart. “The tightening of the movement weakens us and creates disgust in politics”, even explains to us at that time the deputy Raquel Garrido, yet reputed to be close to the ex-elected.
“It’s true that we were pierced by these two subjects in the media and that it ate us a lot of energy”, recognizes Christophe Bex.
After several gestures of support from Jean-Luc Mélenchon towards Adrien Quatennens, which displeased several figures of the group, from Clémentine Autain to François Ruffin via Manon Aubry, a socialist deputy who knows Jean-Luc Mélenchon well even revenge.
“There is a little side ‘you punished my protege by excluding him from the group until April and no one really defended me when I supported him. So I’m going to make you sweat a little'”, judge this parliamentarian.
“We would not understand if he was not in combat”
Implicitly, it is also the incarnation of the left in the coming years that are at stake. If Jean-Luc Mélenchon called on his troops “to do better” during the next presidential election, few really see him slow down.
“I am very proud to have him in our ranks. He is shaking up the debates, he is mobilizing to have the pension reform withdrawn. We would not understand that someone who made 22% in April was not in combat”, thus advances the rebellious Ugo Bernalicis.
However, several forties of the party squeal with impatience and now want to project themselves into the aftermath. François Ruffin, one of the free spirits of the movement, does not rule out running “one day for the presidency”. Clémentine Autain, for her part, indicated that she wanted to be “a stakeholder” in the race for the Élysée in 2027.
“He will always take responsibility and if there is no other choice and he is in the best position to win, he will go. But he would prefer a political situation that does not force him to do so. He is not particularly demanding”, advances Antoine Léaument.
In the ranks of his very close friends, we notice, with a smirk that the former elected official went from 11% to 22% between 2012 and 2022. “Imagine what could give in 2027 if it was him”, smiles again the young man.
According to a Ifop poll for the Sunday newspaperthe septuagenarian embodies 43% opposition to pension reform, overtaken by Marine Le Pen (46%).
