It’s past 10 p.m. Tuesday night. The hemicycle is full and still a bit on edge. This is when Adrien Quatennens chooses to speak. While boos rise from the benches of the macronie, a few rebellious deputies start to applaud him. At this moment, some elected members of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), the green star Sandrine Rousseau and the communist Elsa Faucillon prefer to leave the Assembly. Immediately, macronie rushes into the breach. It was first Pierre Cazeneuve who cried out “scandal”. And then Aurore Bergé, the president of the Renaissance group, who rushes in front of the cameras. On the evening of a third day of mobilization against its decried pension reform, the majority did not hope for a better offering to send its left opposition back to its torments. At the perch, the vice-president RN Sébastien Chenu seems to be drinking whey…
Adrien Quatennens speaks again to the National Assembly. And it is again the embarrassment of La France insoumise… Since his removal for four months from the LFI group after his conviction for domestic violence (to four months in prison, suspended sentence), the deputy from the North sits as non-registered. By a simple coincidence, it is installed at the very top of the hemicycle but just on the edge of the rebellious group. When he got up on Tuesday evening, several of them approached him to applaud him. Among them, Sophia Chikirou, Gabriel Amard and Sébastien Delogu, three faithful among the faithful of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The applause reserved for the 30-year-old outraged part of the Assembly but also in the rebellious ranks. Why speak again now? And why applaud him? These are the questions that several rebellious deputies asked themselves on Wednesday when they discovered the images of the day before. François Ruffin looked a little embarrassed on Franceinfo. “It’s not the right time”, he blurted out. The return of Quatennens, he detailed, “is likely to divide, at a time when we all need to be united to support a movement on pensions which is very deeply rooted in the country”. Another heavyweight of the movement wonders: “I don’t see the point of his speech. What is the collective for? What message are we sending by being triumphant like that? »
The great embarrassment of La France insoumise over the Adrien Quatennens affair
The beginning of the return
Since the revelation of the case in September, the LFI group has been divided on the course of action to adopt. And several deputies have the feeling of being rolled in flour by pure melenchonists. In mid-December, after a series of votes by secret ballot, everyone had agreed on a sanction (four months of radiation) and a review clause. It was then agreed that before his return to the group, the deputy proves his commitment by following a course against violence against women. But the day after his conviction, his one-hour confessional interview on BFMTV, where he overwhelmed his wife and shouted at “lynching”, shocked the elected feminists of La France insoumise. And caused a stir within the entire movement.
Crisis at La France insoumise: who’s the boss?
For the deputy from the North, seen for a time as a possible successor to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, it was the beginning of a return. In January, on his lands in the North, he appeared during a vows ceremony alongside a rebellious mayor. On social networks, he regularly poses in contact with activists during towing sessions. The message is clear: he is back at his post. In the Assembly, he does not really want to wait for the end of his four months of radiation to give his opinion on the Borne-Ciotti reform. A slightly bitter MP: “He even tabled 48 amendments…”
