Lucie Castets is lucky. Last week, his phone didn’t stop ringing. They all called her: Pierre Jouvet, one of the leaders of the Socialist Party, Manuel Bompard, that of La France insoumise (LFI), the rebellious MEP Manon Aubry and Marine Tondelier, the leader of the environmentalists. Well, that’s what they all like to say. One swears to be “her best ally”, the other “her confidant”, and the latter claims to have her “four times a day on the phone”, just that. Socialists, rebels, ecologists and communists cherish Lucie Castets – they say – since she is the allegory of the New Popular Front (NFP), the purest incarnation of the summer understanding of the left parties, and which masks the numerous disagreements of substance, line and strategy.
However, this was not enough for the person concerned, who threw in the towel in Isère. She will not be the NFP candidate in this constituency. Those who swear by his name have made his task impossible. The rebels, who first suggested that he wear the colors of the NFP there, then imposed their condition: since the constituency was allocated to them in the NFP agreement, Castets had no other choice than to sit in their parliamentary group in the Assembly if she was elected, which she did not want.
To choose is to give up, and she did not envisage preferring LFI rather than the PS, the environmentalists or the rebels. Instead, she proposed sitting in the three groups, alternately. Unimaginable for Manuel Bompard, who reminded him of this prerequisite during a telephone interview on Wednesday. And since she refuses to comply, the rebels end up letting Lucie Castets know that they would not hesitate to submit a candidacy of their own to her.
Kind regards
It was the indelicacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, at the podium of a gathering in the Lot on Friday October 18, which finally convinced her not to go. “We agree to present her for the election in our constituency (…). If it is not to Grenoble that she wants to go but to the Ardennes… Well, we have nothing to say. We will will support in the Ardennes (…). The proposal is made,” launched the rebellious leader in front of his family. A poisoned gift as all the strategists of the left, rebels included, know that the by-election which is to be held in the Ardennes soon is unwinnable for the left. In June, the candidate of the National Rally (who has since resigned) came well ahead in the first round, with ten points ahead of the Macronist candidate and 21 over that of the Union of the Left. In the second round, the Republican front did not allow him to worry.
The socialists quickly felt the wind turning, listening to the hesitations of Lucie Castets and the maneuvers of the LFI management. Goujat in its own way, the PS let its local socialists do their thing, who rushed to support their candidate – Amandine Germain – even before Castets’ decision to give up. The pink house has put the forms in place, the Isère federation specifying in its press release that “in the event that Lucie Castets were ultimately to be the representative of all the components of the NFP, the PS and its candidate would obviously put themselves at her disposal for the support and lead this campaign. A kindness that Amandine Germain reminded him of on the phone Thursday. “It’s cordial, she’s a great player, but it still gave Lucie the feeling that they could do without her,” sighs a socialist boss. “One day she is indispensable, and the next day she can stay on the bench It’s inconsistent.” So much disgraceful behavior towards the muse, the “nags”, even denounced the ecologist Marine Tondelier, who took care not to choose, neither in favor of the socialists, nor in favor of the rebels. Which did not help Lucie Castets to decide, sometimes mistreated by the socialists and sometimes by the rebels.
Hide Mélenchon
Isère and Lucie Castets, avatars of the vicissitudes of the New Popular Front and those who lead it. Have they not examined the reasons for the vote in this constituency? “It only wins on the center left,” admits an environmentalist. The resigning LFI deputy, Hugo Prévost, understood this well: he was careful not to display the name of Jean-Luc Mélenchon on his campaign posters, even preferring to place the EELV logo a little higher than that of the rebels. . In the less urban communes of the constituency, on the other side of the Grenoble ring road, where the radical line of the rebels is hardly popular, voters preferred (in 2022) the former minister Olivier Véran and Raphaël Glucksmann (Place Publique) in the 2024 European elections. Especially since last summer’s legislative elections, the postponements of the RN vote were more favorable to Renaissance than to the NFP.
The rebels, who analyzed the sociology of voting in this Isère constituency in the same way, are groping. They are still looking for a candidate to present under their colors, and displaying the NFP banner. “Several working hypotheses are being studied,” evades MP Paul Vannier, in charge of elections within the Mélenchonist movement. Among the avenues for reflection, there is the candidacy of Salomé Robin, a young active activist who wore the colors of Nupes during the 2022 legislative elections where Olivier Véran defeated her. But the idea of a parachute drop is gaining ground among rebellious strategists who are evaluating a profile from civil society, an eco-friendly or CGT trend. While the rebels are looking for their champion, the invested socialist candidate, Amandine Germain, sent invitation cards to local ecologists, communists and rebels who responded favorably. “I am a candidate for the NFP nomination,” she said, a way for her to make it clear that she would not lead the battle alone, against a candidate supported by other left-wing forces. At the PS leadership, no one wants a clash of the left.
Among everyone, socialists, communists, ecologists or rebels, there is only one credo: the NFP, nothing but the NFP, all the NFP. The NFP at all costs, starting in the first constituency of Isère. The stubbornness of Lucie Castets’ personality can be explained thus. Union as a prerequisite, a supposed condition of victory, and above all a way for the left-wing apparatuses not to lose “too much”, not to “weaken” themselves too much. However, unity does not necessarily create strength. There is no more historical truth on the left: in 1936 or 1981, each of the forces sent a candidate, and each withdrew in front of the best placed for the second round. It’s well known: union makes you blind.
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