Although the proposal of a consensual left-wing Prime Minister to represent the New Popular Front has not yet been formulated by the alliance, the name of Clémence Guetté, close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has been mentioned.
After the victory of the Union of the Left in the early legislative elections, LFI, the PCF, EELV and the PS must now announce the name of the next Prime Minister from their ranks who will be proposed to Emmanuel Macron. And if some reject the idea of a head of government from LFI, “we must find a figure who appeases” and “if we want to govern, we need the most consensual name possible” slips a member of the NFP to Politicothe rebels do not seem to hear it that way, starting with one of the rising figures on the LFI side, Clémence Guetté.
“We are a collective and this will change the presidential monarchy” declared the deputy of Val-de-Marne this Tuesday morning on LCI. She continues: “We must propose a name for a Prime Minister but also a whole government team (…) and we are not short of talent” she argues. Without naming any names, the slightest lead, this very close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon assures that despite the absence of an absolute majority in the National Assembly for the New Popular Front (NFP), the alliance will make “parliamentary democracy work”, in particular to implement its program.
A loyal follower of Jean-Luc Mélenchon since 2010
Born on March 15, 1991 in Bressuire in Deux-Sèvres, daughter of a stay-at-home father and an English teacher mother, Clémence Guetté obtained her scientific baccalaureate with honors and then a degree in literature from the University of Poitiers. For a year, she joined Agro Pris Tech to train in environmental policies. In 2010, she joined the Left Party founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. A man she would follow six years later, joining La France insoumise (LFI). In 2017, Clémence Guetté was appointed secretary general of the LFI parliamentary group in the National Assembly. She also participated in the 2017 presidential election and the legislative elections.
In 2019, when Charlotte Girard left, she took her place as coordinator of the program of theFuture in Common in the campaign of the Popular Union, close to the candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon for the 2022 presidential election. “I have always felt a form of revolt, of anger.“I come from a financially modest family, I grew up in an environment steeped in political discussions, even if my parents were not activists” she declared in May 2022 in the columns of Madame Figaro. In 2021, she was a candidate for the first time in the regional elections. Head of the LFI list in Nouvelle-Aquitaine, she won 5.67% of the vote, supported by the PCF and the NPA. A year later, in 2022, she was elected as a deputy in the 2nd constituency of Val-de-Marne under the NUPES banner. She sits in Parliament with LFI and is a member of the Sustainable Development and Regional Planning Committee of the National Assembly. In the recent legislative elections, Clémence Guetté was re-elected in the first round (June 30, 2024) in her constituency of Val-de-Marne, winning 55% of the votes cast.
Clémence Guetté, the “figure who must calm and repair the country”?
La France Insoumise announced that it had been a force for proposals for the post of Prime Minister with several names put forward according to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. “Olivier Faure proposed that the largest parliamentary group propose a Prime Minister. We have several names to propose: Manuel Bompard, Mathilde Panot, Clémence Guetté…” he declared on LCIThe party’s founder did not name himself in the list and assures that he “does not [sera] never the problem, always part of the solution” after the turmoil caused by his previous statements about his own “candidacy” for Matignon, but he refused to exclude himself definitively from the equation. So, will the names put forward be well received and will they have the support of the majority of elected officials of the New Popular Front? Whether it is his own or that of his close rebellious collaborators, Jean-Luc Mélenchon believes that “one cannot say without reason ‘not him or not her'” and that a refusal by left-wing allies will have to be justified, implied by something other than his political affiliation.
Mentioned by the boss of the Insoumis, the name of Clémence Guetté, deputy of Val-de-Marne and president of the LFI group in the National Assembly between 2017 and 2022 seems to be gaining traction among the party’s supporters. Indeed, hundreds of Insoumis activists were calling for her nomination on Monday evening. As a reminder, she is one of the left-wing political figures to have actively participated in the negotiations with EELV, the PCF and the PS concerning the joint program of the New Popular Front. The LFI deputy of the 4th constituency of Haute-Garonne (re-elected in the first round of the legislative elections on June 30) François Piquemal even posted an unequivocal message on his X account (ex-Twitter) this Monday, “What if it was her?” he wrote in the caption of a photo in which Clémence Guetté and himself are present.
Statements, praise and other recommendations that make Clémence Guetté a serious candidate to represent the NFP as Prime Minister. The first secretary of EELV Marine Tondelier drew up the ideal profile of the next tenant of Matignon – from the left – the day after the second round of the legislative elections by evoking a “figure who must appease and repair the country”. Two boxes that Clémence Guetté seems to tick in these times of fracture in French society. Today, her profile, despite the hostility of the other forces of the left alliance to the idea of an LFI Prime Minister, appears much less divisive than that of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.“For the majority of representatives of the political forces in this New Popular Front, he will not and cannot be Prime Minister,” indicated the leader of the French Communist Party Fabien Roussel this Tuesday on RTL about Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Clear, precise and precise.