LEFT UNION. After an agreement between LFI and EELV, Jean-Luc Mélenchon hopes to form a union of the left with the PS and the PCF. Europe and the constituencies are sources of disagreement between rebels and socialists.
[Mis à jour le 3 mai 2022 à 15h13] Impossible to miss the “historic” agreement concluded between La France Insoumise and Europe-Ecologie-Les Verts. After two weeks of negotiations, compromises – especially for environmentalists – and final nocturnal discussions on 1er May, the coalition is finalized. The two left-wing political forces are fighting the battle for the legislative elections together under the common banner of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union (NUPES). A new name, one of the conditions sine qua non imposed by EELV to erase all suspicions of a “submission” of environmentalists to the rebellious and to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. The parties present themselves on an equal footing but between the lines of the agreement, the leader of LFI seems to be slightly more of a winner than his new allies. The only compromise made is a slight step back on European disobedience in an agreement which specifies that in the event of a majority it will be the perfect choice for Matignon.
Agreement between France Insoumise and EELV for the next legislative elections – Press releasehttps://t.co/qed3zAV56G
– France insoumise (@FranceInsoumise) May 1, 2022
If the agreement is a step forward for LFI, it is only the beginning. The new left-wing coalition wants to be joined by the French Communist Party and the Socialist Party, and the latter will be more difficult to convince. Just the idea of a union between the PS and LFI gives hives to some long-time socialists and members of the party, yet the new generation of elected officials is more inclined to conclude an agreement. François Hollande warned against the announced death of the PS in the event of rallying to Jean-Luc Mélenchon pointing the finger at the big gap between the fundamental values of the two parties in particular on Europe. In addition to the basic problems, there is the issue of constituencies, another point of tension according to the indiscretions of the parties in the negotiations.
LFI winner of the agreement with EELV
La France Insoumis and Europe-Ecologie-Les Vers reached an agreement on the night of 1er to 2 May and immediately welcomed an unparalleled agreement. The conditions of such an agreement have raised questions given the sometimes diametrically opposed positions of the two parties, and if both have changed their position, it is above all the environmentalists who have cut back on their program. Behind the new banner of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES) it is therefore a common project that the left-wing coalition defends with a social component including “the increase in the minimum wage to €1,400, the return to retirement at 60 years for all, the guarantee of autonomy for young people, the freezing of prices on basic necessities and the eradication of poverty”. Measures aligned with the presidential program of Jean-Luc Mélenchon and close to that of Yannick Jadot who pleaded for a minimum wage of €1,500 and the maintenance of retirement at 62, among others.
The ecological planning of the leader of LFI is also renewed in the program of the NUPES. On this vast project supposed to respond to the climatic and environmental emergency, a priority for ecologists, the negotiations did not have to extend, unlike the measures concerning Europe and the distribution of constituencies. Two subjects that count the rare nuanced victories of EELV. After having tapped the point on the table, the party candidates will be present in 100 constituencies without competition from LFI – and perhaps from the PS and the PCF – including 30 more or less winnable. The chances are therefore slim but exist to form a group of at least 15 EELV deputies in the National Assembly.
As for Europe, sidesteps have been taken. Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not renounce the principle of disobedience but reduced it, under pressure from environmentalists, to a few European “economic and budgetary rules such as the stability and growth pact, competition law, the guidelines productivists and neoliberals of the Common Agricultural Policy, etc”. EELV also demanded a clear position excluding “leaving the Union, its disintegration [et] the end of the single currency”. The NUPES nevertheless writes a criticism of Europe and says it wants to “end the neoliberal and productivist course of the European Union for a new project at the service of ecological and social construction” .
Difficult but close agreement between LFI and the PS
La France Insoumise is campaigning for an agreement as soon as possible with the Socialist Party, but the negotiations are proving to be longer than expected. “We are a few steps away from a historic agreement”, enthused Pierre Jouvet, the negotiator and spokesperson for the PS on European 1 on May 3 specifying that there “remain a certain number of elements of adjustments on the programmatic content, the distributions of constituency”. As for the ecologists before them, the socialists block on the positioning compared to Europe. The LFI – EELV agreement having paved the way and negotiations on the subject, it should not be a brake on the rallying of the PS.
However, Europe, secularism, the Republic or even economic subjects such as the financing of retirement at 60 are cited by the socialists opposed to the agreement as points on which LFI and PS are irreconcilable. They are the same as François Hollande on France info on April 27 or Stéphane Le Foll in Point compared the conclusion of an agreement with LFI to the end of the PS. On May 3, they were a thousand to sign a letter addressed to Olivier Faure, first secretary of the party, to indicate that the discussions with Jean-Luc Mélenchon are “not a negotiation or an agreement, it is a surrender”. Terms similar to those in open letter from Jean-Christophe Cambadélisthe former boss of the PS called on the Socialists to coordinate and restructure the party.
Towards an LFI-PCF agreement?
The Communists are the last to have joined the negotiating table in the agenda of the left in the afternoon of May 2, but they could quickly become part of the union of the left. The communist negotiator, Igor Zamichiei indicated on Twitter that “the national executive of the PCF has just given a favorable mandate to its delegation to finalize the draft agreement with LFI”. In the camp of Fabien Roussel, few oppositions to an agreement with LFI were expressed despite the differences between the two political families or those of the PCF with the PS and EELV. It is above all ecological and nuclear issues that could be an obstacle to the coalition, the communist candidate being a fervent defender of the power plants when Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Yannick Jadot want to close them as quickly as possible. It is not so since Fabien Roussel himself indicated Monday morning on France info that he is “ready to set aside this issue” so as not to prevent the conclusion of an agreement. The deputy calls for a union of all left-wing forces after having gone it alone in the presidential election.
Union of the left slice on ecology and nuclear
The left can not miss the theme of ecology and even less a union of the left. LFI and EELV have agreed on this point and defend with one voice the ecological planning devised by LFI and above all the abandonment of nuclear power as soon as possible. Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Yannick Jadot both pleaded for the closure of nuclear power plants on slightly different horizons but for the same objective: to get France out of nuclear power by 2035 at the latest. At the negotiating table, the measure had to put everything everyone agrees without difficulty. The Socialist Party, which has spoken less on the issue, also took the lead in phasing out nuclear power in April 2022. During the presidential election, the promise of “100% renewable” and therefore the end of the use of nuclear energy to cover national electricity needs by 2050 has been issued. According to this new vision, ecology and the end of nuclear power should not pose a problem for the PS to rally to the New Popular Ecological and Social Union.
The Communists are those who could have protested against the exit from nuclear power but too willing to join the union of the left, the national secretary of the PCF Fabien Roussel himself assured that the party could give up defending nuclear power. Ecology could therefore be a solid anchor for NUPES without too much effort.
Europe, source of disagreements and compromises on the left
Will or will not leave Europe? According to the conditions laid down in the agreement between LFI and EELV, the answer is no. Neither the exit of the EU, nor that of the euro zone are possible for the pro-European ecologists and by extension for the NUPES. But if they succeeded in imposing their point of view, they too had to make concessions and accept that in certain respects the European rules – in particular economic and budgetary – are not respected. “We will not be the first nor the last to do so, in France as in Europe”, justify rebellious and environmentalists in their press release explaining that Spain is already circumventing the rules on energy prices or Germany on the competition between drinking water companies.
Ecologists have therefore taken a step aside but assured guarantees, will the Socialists be satisfied with the established compromise? Olivier Faure, first secretary of the PS seems ready to endorse this position. “We want to put Europe under tension on a certain number of subjects, on social and environmental subjects, and therefore this may suppose temporarily objecting to the rules which are set by the European Union”, he explained on France Inter 1er may. Yet behind the scenes of the PS and especially in the spheres unfavorable to the union behind LFI it is judged that the terms of the agreement hide an “exit from the European treaties”, an unacceptable act for Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, former boss of the PS.
What distribution of the constituencies envisaged for LFI, EELV and the PS?
It is undoubtedly, with Europe, the subject which creates the most tension between the forces of the left: the distribution of the constituencies. The ecologists got what they wanted with 100 constituencies, including around thirty that are said to be winnable, but it was necessary to raise their voices to bend La France insoumise. It is now the Socialist Party’s turn to negotiate good representation in the elections and later in the National Assembly. The rose party arrives with demands and asks for more than a hundred constituencies. It must be said that of the forces on the left, the PS is the one with the largest number of elected officials and the best territorial anchoring, a situation which is however not representative of the last presidential election. After this disavowal, the party knows that keeping its number of deputies afloat is the only way not to disappear, only everyone on the left does not hear the argument that way. “The Socialists will not have the number of deputies they hoped for (…) They have a little trouble admitting what happened in the first round [de la présidentielle]”, indicated LFI deputy Eric Coquerel on the sidelines of the negotiations according to BFM TV. The party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon judges that the April scores justify a lower representation of the PS and it is this debate which would monopolize the negotiations according to LCI. While Manuel Bompard demands on May 3 that the discussions “end by the end of the day”, who from the PS or LFI will have the last word on the constituencies?