“Manu, I had your oral undertaking that you would not do this.” It is 3 a.m., Saturday June 15, and Marine Tondelier is fuming in the WhatsApp group of the main party leaders of the new Popular Front, as revealed by Libération. The National Secretary has just learned that the rebellious “rebels” – Raquel Garrido, Alexis Corbière, Danielle Simonnet, Hendrik Davi and Frédéric Mathieu – have not been reinvested by the Mélenchonist leadership, and is placing a heavy burden on her coordinator, Manuel Bompard. “I am angry, and worried about everything this means, about what I consider to be a form of disrespectful sabotage of our collective history,” she laments in a long message. “The story that we write together, episode after episode, sets a narrative.” The story was therefore all written, staged by the ecologists as the controversy grew: “I don’t see why we wouldn’t support the outgoing deputies”, she asserted on a TV set. A position similar to that of the socialist Olivier Faure or Fabien Roussel, boss of the Communist Party.
Understand then that we no longer understand anything. Three days later, a letter to Alexis Corbière and Danielle Simonnet, signed by Marine Tondelier, smacks of backpedaling. “We discovered that you used without our authorization the logo of the Ecologists party and the photo of its National Secretary, Marine Tondelier, on electoral propaganda material. This use contravenes the national agreement signed with the other components of the new Popular Front […] In doing so, this also contravenes electoral law and could give rise to appeals.”
The purged see blurred. We then asked a few green activists for the contact details of the head of the Greens to understand whether or not her training provides them with support. Radio silence. Similar questioning among certain Sunflower Party activists. “What should we do locally?” asks an executive from the 20th arrondissement, in an email to the green management. We do it three times. And this answer, finally: “So if I understood correctly, we can support them provided that there is no reference to environmentalists on the electoral propaganda material.” Too late, the leaflets stamped with the figure of Tondelier or the logo of the green house are already distributed daily. “The situation is ludicrous,” whispers in the constituency.
© / The Express
In the motions opposing Marine Tondelier, rare enough to underline it, we agree on necessary renunciations. “There was no deal on the names of the people invested, even if we have the right to think that it was not a great idea to exclude them at that time,” says an executive from a current minority. Another, from the right wing: “There are party agreements, otherwise the Insoumis would not support our candidates.”
“I forgot how unreliable environmentalists are”
Paris is not quite Seine-Saint-Denis; this is perhaps the reason why Marine Tondelier’s entourage exerted greater pressure on the ecologists who had entered into dissidence. Those around him picked up the phone to intimidate the bold who would like to campaign for the rebels who have been purged rather than those whom LFI has officially invested. This is a poor understanding of the green house where horizontality is king, and activists hate nothing more than a leader who imposes a decision. Thus, this weekend, the section of the 20th arrondissement of ecologists contradicted the party. A formal dissent, supported by a vote: 93% of local members decided to support Danielle Simonnet and even “solemnly call on Madame Verzeletti to withdraw her candidacy”.
Tondelier’s entourage denies any pressure, but several environmentalist oil companies, sometimes targeted by the appeals, do not budge. “I am not commenting on the subject of four constituencies out of 456 which will remain on the left whatever happens,” dismisses Augustin Augier, Marine Tondelier’s gun-holder. And to think that the rebellious would have liked to organize a rally labeled “New Popular Front” for these rebellious neo-candidates, and that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is expected there as guest of honor. Problem: a number of Parisian ecologists have already made it known that they would not be part of it, especially if it is a moment to weaken those purged from LFI, including Danielle Simonnet. In short, a left-wing coalition rally without the environmentalists, communists and socialists. Enough to stain.
All these environmentalist reversals are annoying in the corridors of the left. Today, the rebels loyal to Mélenchon say they are satisfied to be able to count on loyal ecologists, but they have not forgotten the three-gang attacks that the same people made during the Nupes negotiations in 2022. Already at the time , Julien Bayou, who led the movement, tried with the socialists and the communists to foment a coalition parallel to the negotiations, of three, to better stand up to the rebels. “They are not reliable” grumbled those around Mélenchon.
Rebelote, two years later. Hopes of putting pressure on the rebellious three-way leader fizzled out, as reported by L’Express. Very quickly, Marine Tondelier let the socialists and communists know that she did not support her party, which put her under pressure to negotiate with the rebels. On the night of Sunday June 9 to Monday June 10, with David Cormand, she headed to the rebellious headquarters to start some informal chats with Manuel Bompard and Paul Vannier, the movement’s election manager. And a socialist took up yesterday’s rebellious words: “I had forgotten to what extent environmentalists are unreliable.”
But now, like Olivier Faure and Fabien Roussel this Monday, June 24, Marine Tondelier is in turn opposed to the prime ministerial desires of the rebellious patriarch. “It’s not against Jean-Luc Mélenchon, but our political adversaries are using this scarecrow to discredit us,” she told AFP. It was perhaps David Cormand, close to Marine Tondelier, an old hand in the Green Party, who best summed up his movement. It was in 2022, just after Nupes. “The disease of environmentalists,” he said, “is that we want to be loved by everyone.” Real artichoke hearts!
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