With each of his steps, the earth trembles. Jean-Luc Mélenchon frightens his friends, those of yesterday and today, those who, reckless, dare to glimpse a future without him. A simple investigation by L’Express revealing that, clandestinely, dinners around the millionaire Olivier Legrain have been bringing together strong leaders of the left for several months – almost all the left – and now they are retreating in the face of the paralyzing fear of reprisals. Turn around, we’d rather starve ourselves than make him angry.
So, how can we not be seized by discouragement when, at the end of several days of suspense over his Elysian intentions skilfully maintained by followers of “inventive journalism” (sic), Jean-Luc Mélenchon breaks out with a long message on X to affirm, not that he will not be a candidate, but that “the date of the rebellious candidacy is not on the agenda”? Mélenchon candidate for the presidential election, Mélenchon candidate today, this is the only hope for the left.
The possibility of a start. Because they would finally have the certainty that the leader will never give way, supporters and potential aspirants could stop their procastination. To the absence of an outstretched hand, respond with frank emancipation. Faced with excesses, impose nuance. Rejecting “the univocal world” described by the German academic Thomas Bauer in his brilliant book of the same name (Towards a univocal world. On the loss of ambiguity and diversity, editions L’écuée) – and of which Mélenchon is undoubtedly now one of the most fervent representatives – and prefer complexity, let’s dream: finesse. His candidacy as a liberation!
Deliverance for François Ruffin, above all, LFI deputy for the Somme and whispered successor, too well-bred to launch without the support of the boss, too moderate to launch with the support of the boss. “Me, I am changing in tone, but not in substance,” he assures Olivier Faure one day in September 2022, according to Olivier Peru’s story in our columns. “Go ahead, do it, say it differently so we can see. What do you think it will give? Nothing at all”, roars Mélenchon in February 2024 while traveling to Belfort. The response instead of the dubbing. Clear, but in politics as in love, sometimes it takes an explosion to turn things around. The umpteenth, fourth candidacy of the Insoumis leader could be this one.
Let’s dream again… Freed from the absurd prospect of obtaining Mélenchonist support on the eve of the 2027 presidential election, would François Ruffin have apologized after his comments on gender, made on France Info? Asked about the relevance of the law allowing minors aged 16 to change their gender in Spain, MP Insoumis replied: “For me the heart of the subject is work, the sharing of wealth, it is democracy. I think we have a deeply fractured society in France […]in this climate, we need appeasement, stability, rebuilding bridges, and repairing fractures and not deepening them further, we are not going to do everything that comes to mind, we are not going to do everything that is perhaps good in itself, but seek the paths that allow society to be reconciled. […] This is not what we should place at the heart of our project.” Faced with the outcry caused in the Insoumis ranks, buried under the public condemnations of his friends, Ruffin was quick to back down, giving up defending his line consisting of making social combat its priority. Intemperance or death.
Mélenchon candidate, would this be the end of a balancing act which slows down Ruffin more than it serves him? Mélenchon candidate is, for Ruffin, the immediate and lasting loss of the most radical troops of rebellious France. It is therefore the immediate rebirth of its capacity to form the famous union of the left, the one without which for 2027, all success seems compromised. The bridges he hopes to rebuild, the fractures he intends to repair, will not be repaired as long as the chief demolitionist is at his side, fascinated by the figure of Robespierre. Every side step will be punished. “Justice prompt, severe, inflexible.” Quickly submit a candidacy from Mélenchon, quickly break up!
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