for Hollande, Mélenchon does not have his “place” at Matignon – L’Express

our readers react to the news – LExpress

The left wants to display its unity with its “New Popular Front” on Friday 16 days before the first round of the legislative elections, contrary to the fractures at LR, where Eric Ciotti is contesting in court his exclusion from the presidency of the party after joining the National Rally . The LFI, PS, environmentalist and communist leaders will hold a press conference at 11:30 a.m. at the Maison de la Chimie in Paris to celebrate their union.

Information to remember

⇒ The “New Popular Front” unveils its program this Friday

⇒ Hollande is in favor of the “New Popular Front” agreement

⇒ LR: the court examines Ciotti’s appeal

An agreement on the left

Thursday evening, they announced a joint “break” program, with a “declination for the first 100 days of the mandate”, at the end of four days of intense negotiations. The leaders of the left have multiplied the superlatives to salute a “considerable political event in France”, “a page in History”.

READ ALSO: Darmanin and Dati jubilant after the dissolution, this ex-Prime Minister who pleases Macron

But a major unknown remains what Raphaël Glucksmann thinks about it, who remains silent. It’s “complicated”, someone close to the head of the PS/Public Place list in the European elections told AFP. Eight months after the implosion of the Nupes, a new program was announced as well as single candidacies and a sharing of constituencies: 229 for LFI, 175 for the PS, 92 for the Ecologists and 50 for the Communists.

Hollande is in favor of the “New Popular Front” agreement

Former President François Hollande is “favorable” to the agreement of the “New Popular Front” with a view to the legislative elections, he underlined Thursday evening on TF1, while castigating Emmanuel Macron’s decision to dissolve the Assembly national. “What is essential is that the union was able to take place,” said the former head of state. Faced with the extreme right, “we go beyond differences”.

READ ALSO: Edouard Philippe – François Hollande: these starters for 2027 who are each thinking about a “ticket”

“I am in favor of this Popular Front” between LFI, PS, ecologists and communists, he underlined, while demanding the affirmation of “a European orientation, a presence of France” in NATO, and the recognition that Hamas committed a “terrorist act” on October 7. In his eyes, the rebellious leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon is “not in a position to be able to claim a place in what could be a governmental future”, he nevertheless clarified.

LR: the court examines Ciotti’s appeal

A landscape far from the fractures at LR, which the justice system will have to examine. The Paris judicial court examines on Friday Eric Ciotti’s appeal against his exclusion from the Republicans, for his rallying to the National Rally. The Republican leaders must, for their part, meet in a new political office to formally validate the ousting of their president pronounced on Wednesday.

READ ALSO: Bruno Retailleau: “Eric Ciotti shoots his own troops in the back”

But LR leaders have not finished with their differences, particularly regarding the attitude to adopt in the event of a duel between the “New Popular Front” and the RN in the second round of June 7. MEP François-Xavier Bellamy would “of course” vote for the RN, he said before procrastinating on social networks, when others advocate abstention.

Marine Le Pen campaigns in Hénin-Beaumont

On the National Rally side, Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella had lunch with their new war prize, Eric Ciotti, on Thursday.

READ ALSO: The RN in power? What we learn from countries governed by populism

And the two far-right leaders will campaign on the ground, Marine Le Pen in her stronghold of Hénin-Beaumont (Pas-de-Calais) for a stroll on the market in the morning, and Jordan Bardella on a farm in the Loiret, in the afternoon.

Attal will visit the construction sites of Saint-Nazaire and Nantes

On the side of the presidential majority, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal is also continuing his campaign. After Boulogne-sur-Mer, in Pas-de-Calais, he should go to the construction sites of Saint-Nazaire and Nantes, for a trip devoted to the economy and businesses, with RN and LFI in his sights.

READ ALSO: Gabriel Attal: in the mind of a Prime Minister in the “past future”

On Thursday, he castigated the “shame agreement” on the left. Voters “of Raphaël Glucksmann must feel so betrayed, they heard throughout the European campaign” that it was “finished with Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, he insisted.

Macron uses the Olympics as a campaign argument

On the sidelines of the G7 in Italy, Emmanuel Macron brought up another argument, the approach of the Paris Olympic Games from July 26 to August 11. The French will “integrate the Olympic Games” in Paris “in their choices” in the anticipated legislative elections, he assured. “I think they don’t want to have an Olympic Games that looks bad”, and will want officials “who prepared these Games” and “not people who are not ready at all”, added the head of state, implicitly targeting the National Rally.

READ ALSO: “In the embassies, it’s astonishment”: Macron’s complicated diplomatic agenda

He does not “believe”, moreover, that he will be weakened internationally despite the threat of cohabitation with the far right. “My interlocutors” from the G7 “are all democratically elected officials. They all said: It’s courageous,” he affirmed in front of journalists, regarding the dissolution of the National Assembly and these legislative elections in high risks on June 30 and July 7.



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