Gathered on Wednesday, November 20 at the Congress of Mayors for a breakfast, the socialist councilors expressed concern about one of their allies. “Marine Tondelier’s trend is rather LFI-compatible,” worried a Nordic baron. And a city councilor from a large city sent them a warning: “If the environmentalists start wanting to change alliances in our cities, the socialists will take their responsibilities into theirs.” Roses have thorns, and here is the classic abseiling rope between these two groups, partners in most of the metropolises governed by the left and the Greens, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon – staging his ambitions for 2026 – threatens to present LFI lists everywhere. Thus attempting to forcefully sit down at the negotiating table on the left. Two years before the deadlines, the socialist councilors have already thought they were seeing some weak signals, fearing the opening of this new center of attraction on the port side. In municipium veritas ?
“There is an internal suction at the LFI-EELV front”
The PS observes the very particular case of Montpellier led by Michaël Delafosse, where one of the ambitious green deputies, Manu Reynaud, considered too close to the mayor, was excluded from the Greens. Where Julia Mignacca – also president of the party’s internal parliament and member of Marine Tondelier’s current – calls for the formation of a “unified and resolute opposition” to fight against the “anti-social and anti-ecological” policies of the Montpellier city councilor. The socialists are also keeping a close eye on the Lille municipality, which the environmentalists almost won from Martine Aubry in 2020, by around 200 votes. Stéphane Baly, reappointed by local activists, assured not to make a first round alliance with the Insoumis. “What about the second?” asks a local tenor.
“There is an internal aspiration for the union of the left. And failing that, to the LFI-EELV front,” responds Jérôme Gleize, Paris advisor and figure on the left wing of the Greens. In this case, Marine Tondelier will be able to statutorily invoke the accusation of subjugation, protected by article 13-13 of the internal regulations of the Ecologists which enshrines the principle of subsidiarity in local elections. “Her greatest strength in Marine is having stolen the talisman of union from Olivier Faure at the time of the NFP, observes a socialist senator. If she wants to keep it, she will have to choose… in all the cities. She will not be able to retreat behind her statutes.” “These municipal elections will be a moment of truth for everyone,” adds Pierre Jouvet, secretary general of the PS. Revealing the nature of their allies.
Because for some time now, some have been deploring, quietly, a supposed subservience of the Greens to the rebels. At the New Popular Front, the union survives as best it can and the bad memories remain. How many times, during informal conversations, do these deputies remember this evening the dissolution when Marine Tondelier, under pressure from her parliamentarians, decided to begin discussions with her Mélenchonist counterparts? “It’s the Stockholm syndrome of the Greens,” says a PS. “Yesterday with us, today with the Insoumis.” Because they have plenty of evidence, they want to believe. Like the delicate episode of the partial legislative elections in Isère, aimed at finding a base for Lucie Castets. After labeling her partners as “nags” – without taking an open position on the thorny question of Lucie Castets’ possible parliamentary group – the national secretary quickly gave her support to the rebellious candidate Lyes Louffok, after the muse of the NFP threw in the towel in the face of the inextricable situation.
An attitude that some explain by the porosity of the two electorates with a view to a dissolution next summer. Although the reality is more complex: “The two parties receive the vote of young people, the middle and upper classes and graduates, analyzes Mathieu Gallard, research director at the Ipsos institute. There is, however, a difference in the electorates in in terms of income, and in terms of ideological positioning; the ecologists are less radical than the Insoumis.”
“When I read in the press that I am subject to rebels, it’s nonsense,” protests Marine Tondelier. In front of her friends, the person concerned believes that she has been respected by Manuel Bompard – whom she nicknames “Manu” – the coordinator of the Insoumis, whom she got to know through long evenings of negotiations, and other weekly meetings of the NFP. With Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the relationship is rough – with whom is it not? The two had lunch together last month. Between two forks of dirty talk, we talk without naivety about 2027. “I think everyone understood that it was not imposed but that it was not excluded,” she quips. At this deadline, the socialists fear seeing the environmentalists slip into the rebellious fold. The latter sometimes laugh about it with their green counterparts: “At some point, you will have to choose.” Same injunction on the pink side: “The Greens will have to determine by concentric circle who their first allies are.” The union has an expiration date, and here are the ecologists caught in the pincers of the hegemonic forces.
To choose is to give up. And for now, in the name of the NFP, Marine Tondelier and her troops really love everyone… In the Assembly or in the media, environmentalists are staging their attempt at equidistance. On the other hand, the ecologists agree with the roses for a single candidacy from the left for 2027, and – very recently – no longer make Lucie Castets’ candidacy for Matignon the alpha and omega of the alliance. On the other hand, they are not openly opposed to the possibility of a candidacy of Jean-Luc Mélenchon (unlike the PS), pleading for an NFP intergroup in the Assembly – only the Insoumis responded favorably. “The ecologists seek to give pledges to the rebels and the socialists, analyzes a union deputy. The good role is not necessarily the right one…”
The beautiful role – she has become the favorite personality of the French left, according to a Cluster17 survey – Marine Tondelier (and her green jacket) owes it to her post-dissolution media tour. “She managed to be in tune with the emotional state of NFP voters,” greets Marie Toussaint, the former head of the environmentalist list in the European elections. “The party has found its place,” recognizes Yannick Jadot. And the right role for environmentalists? “The role of a link has its limits. To obtain compromises between others, you give less of yourself,” warns the green presidential candidate of 2022. An observation shared by Marie Toussaint: “I unfortunately fear that the place of ecology is less important in the NFP than in the Nupes.” Marine Tondelier should, unsurprisingly, be reappointed as party leader at the April 2025 congress for a three-year term. As many years in power as there are injunctions to resolve.
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