And now, the dissolution! This second five-year term is definitely like no other. The last reshuffle with Gabriel Attal at its head is already far away, the European elections are barely over when the president decides to call legislative elections. More than ever, behind the scenes, some are learning to dodge the tripping, others are familiarizing themselves with the art of conspiracy, in short, everyone is preparing for the post-Emmanuel Macron era with rigor and determination.
The case of Commissioner Breton
Emmanuel Macron has made a lot of progress on the reappointment of Thierry Breton as European Commissioner, before the first round of the legislative elections, while the choice will have to be shared between the president and the future Prime Minister. “If it is Bardella and Macron twists his arm, the RN will provoke a negative vote in the European Parliament,” warns a leader of the majority.
The Expiry Date of the New Popular Front
Will it go? Will it not go? Rarely has the hypothesis of a national unity government (or a coalition) been so serious on the eve of this second round of legislative elections. “Let’s always think about it, never talk about it,” said Gambetta. On the left, we think about it a little more than usual, but not at any price or conditions. And everyone sees noon at their door. Marine Tondelier’s environmentalists say they are “ready to govern.” For Olivier Faure, such a coalition would only make sense with the program of the New Popular Front “as a center of gravity.”
“We need firefighters who start putting out the fire,” said François Ruffin, when asked about the subject of a coalition, and who puts “on the table” three measures: “the return of a wealth tax, the citizens’ initiative referendum and the repeal of the pension reform.” Others add the repeal of the immigration law, in addition. But not everyone within the New Popular Front is of this opinion… “We will only govern to implement the program, nothing but the program, the whole program,” explains a member of the LFI leadership, who warns: “If we do not have the same attitude towards the government, the coherence of the entire New Popular Front will be undermined.”
The thousands of euros of the purge at LFI
Those who are called the “Insoumis insoumis” still can’t believe the energy Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his Red Guards spent against them in the first round of these legislative elections. Alexis Corbière saw several outgoing LFI deputies, all loyal to the leader, come to his constituency to campaign against him. The writer Edouard Louis and the Parisian philosopher Geoffroy de Lagasnerie even made the effort to go to Montreuil to call for a vote for the official candidate and to rail against Corbière, whom they do not consider to be “a man of the left”.
A lunar meeting where they very seriously accused Corbière of having sabotaged the sound system and microphone that were not working properly. On the networks, the little hands of LFI were also responsible for deleting the connection identifiers of the gang of “purged” on “Action populaire”, the rebellious social network. In addition to the numerous legal actions against Corbière, Garrido, Simonnet and Davi (in Marseille) which cost money, the movement also financed SMS campaigns. Thousands of messages were thus broadcast to voters in these constituencies where the war between the Insoumis raged. And LFI had money to lose: at a rate of 10 to 33 cents depending on the length of the message, the operation was close to several thousand euros.
The Greens are back on CNews
They had been boycotting the channel since 2020 for the “racist, misogynistic, homophobic or climate-sceptic” remarks made there by Eric Zemmour, a former regular columnist. The Ecologists, and Marine Tondelier, finally made their big comeback on CNews on Thursday, July 4, and the national secretary answered questions from Laurence Ferrari. A quasi-unanimous decision by the Executive Bureau, “exceptional” and “unique”, dictated by their “total determination to beat the RN, without any compromise”, justified the party’s leadership internally. At the Federal Council (party parliament) which had voted four years ago for the boycott of the channel, the decision was only moderately popular. “We did not vote for this text so that it would be applied with variable geometry”, complained a manager in an electronic loop of the political party.
Fire on the Son-in-law
Although he was among the historic figures of the Macron adventure and chaired the En Marche group in the National Assembly from 2018 to 2020, Gilles Le Gendre, candidate in the 2nd constituency of Paris in dissent against a close friend of Rachida Dati, suffered the wrath of Gabriel Attal. Renaissance activists thus received a letter on the eve of the first round with a large photo of the Prime Minister alongside the official candidate, Jean Laussucq.
Signed by a party official, the letter stated: “Gilles Le Gendre is a dissident candidate who does not represent the presidential majority and he does not have the right to claim it. This is causing great confusion. […] To give the largest possible majority to Emmanuel Macron and Gabriel Attal, it is for the candidate invested ‘Together for the Republic’, Jean Laussucq, and for his substitute, Antoine Lesieur, that we must vote.” Coming third on June 30, and subjected to very strong pressure, Le Gendre ended up withdrawing but by withdrawing… for the candidate of the New Popular Front, who came in first.
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