MELENCHON. Jean-Luc Mélenchon collected more than 7.7 million votes in the first round of the presidential election. With the legislative elections in sight, the radical left may have ambitions for the end of spring.
The result of the Insoumis in the first round of the election will have surprised more than one. With more than 7.7 million votes, he narrowly misses qualifying for the second round (see all the results of the presidential election). Jean-Luc Mélenchon recorded his defeat on Sunday evening, calling for “not to give a single voice to Ms. Le Pen”, without explicitly giving a voting instruction in favor of Emmanuel Macron. During this campaign, he managed to unite around his name a large part of the leftist vote, sucking up the environmentalist voices and part of the socialist voices.
In fact, many voters considered that he embodied the useful vote against Marine Le Pen and Emmanuel Macron. His political training is now becoming essential, and perhaps permanently if his executives are able to capitalize on this performance in the presidential election. The French political landscape can be structured around 3 poles: the European social-liberalism of Emmanuel Macron, the national-populism of Marine Le Pen and the radical left of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But the leader of France Insoumise must now build a movement capable of transforming the trial in the 2022 legislative elections if he wants to be an essential force of opposition and alternation in the future. This will inevitably pass through alliances with other formations on the left, no matter how bitter he may be against those who did not line up behind him earlier.
Gathered on Sunday to celebrate a good score but overwhelmed at having narrowly missed second place, LFI activists listened to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s last speech as a candidate for the presidential election. Above all, he wished to celebrate the “pride of the work accomplished”, citing the immense force “built by our hands”, referring here to the strong momentum generated around his candidacy, in particular in recent weeks. “For each step, there is this strength, if you decide to preserve it and surround it,” he hammered, confident about the reserves his party now has. He mentioned the Overseas Territories which, from the first round, “elected him for their president”. This record result indeed fell on Monday April 10 in the morning, rewarding him with more than 50% of the votes in Guadeloupe (56.16%), in Martinique (53.10%) and in Guyana (50.59%).
For him, the emergency, which was already “social and ecological”, is now “political”, because of the “institutions of the 5th Republic” and this “strange system of drawing lots”. But, carried by the applause, he remained determined: “As long as life goes on, the fight goes on”, reminding his constituents: “You are neither weak nor without means, you are in a condition to lead this battle and the next, as long as there is; I never gave in. Now it’s up to you”.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon did not hide his disappointment with “everything that has been done and that will not be done”, citing what he was “preparing to do” and the “beautiful teams” available to his party. “How to hide the pride of the work accomplished”, he chained, delighted to be able to affirm: “the popular pole exists, if we were not there, what would remain”. He warned: “The struggle continues, to all those who until now have not wanted to hear it: here is the strength”. According to the Insoumis, the popular pole is “a strategy, a program”. He reminded his supporters that other elections were to come and that “every time, at every stage the rank will be held”. Before concluding on a note of hope: “So, to the younger ones who will tell me, we haven’t succeeded. It’s not far… Do better”.
“I know your anger, do not let it come to make you make mistakes that would definitely be irreparable,” he began to introduce his voting instructions. “We know who we will never vote for,” he insisted; “for the rest, we trust the French”. However, he specified: “do not give a single voice to Mrs. Le Pen”, repeating it three times, to avoid experiencing the same reprobations as five years earlier, when he had been accused of being unclear about his instructions to vote. However, he did not pronounce the name of Emmanuel Macron, like the communist Fabien Roussel, the two sticking to asking their voters to block the far right.
Fallen at the foot of the podium but chosen by 22% of voters, Jean-Luc Mélenchon celebrated this defeat with the appearance of victory. The reactions of the political figures of the party were thus similar to his. Adrien Quatennens, LFI deputy, spoke in particular on the France 2 set on the evening of April 10: “The voters voted for a sharing of wealth, and to avoid the worst at the ecological level”. According to him, the poster of the first round does not “condition anything of the continuation”. On the contrary, he felt that this “construction” was “a fulcrum for the future”. “Our result is exceptional”, he chanted. An observation shared by Frédéric Mathieu, leader of the Insoumis in Rennes for whom LFI is becoming a “real alternative force” against the far right and against the “liberalist order” of Emmanuel Macron (remarks made during an interview with West France). For Muriel Ressiguier, LFI deputy in the 2nd constituency of Hérault: “We could have passed the course of the second round, but it shows a good score, it shows those who thought that there was no more left than the values of the Future in common have a space that something else is possible, an alternative” (comments reported by the Free lunch).
But another melody was heard on the evening of Sunday April 10: that of bitterness towards the other left-wing candidates whose votes failed to reach the second round. “The buttock hair that Jean-Luc Mélenchon lacks to be in the second round, we can name it. Yes, we missed the voices of Fabien Roussel, incontestably”, confided Adrien Quatennens on the set of France Inter. Same refrain for Ségolène Royal, the ex-candidate for the presidency who castigated the socialist Anne Hidalgo, the communist Fabien Roussel and environmentalist Yannick Jadot for not having “the sense of their duty”. This “dramatic” situation occurs according to her “because of their egos, their lack of insight, the calculation of the third round” If they had lined up behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leaving him more chances of qualifying for the final duel, “France could benefit from a real substantive debate”, she added. The same goes for anti-species activist and member of the Popular Union Aymeric Caron who expressed his grievances on Twitter: “Jadot called for a vote for Macron, who he recognizes is anti-ecologist. This after refusing to withdraw to allow an environmental program to be in the 2nd round. Now he will continue to shout against irresponsible policies that do nothing for the environment,” he said.
“In the coming battle, we have constituted the popular pole”, recalled the Insoumis during his speech on the evening of April 10. With 7,714,574 votes, he can indeed pride himself on being at the head of a political force that is part of the tripartism that will henceforth structure the French political landscape. The Insoumis are on their way to the “third round”, that of the legislative elections, where they intend to establish themselves as a central opposition force. Jean-Luc Mélenchon should not run for Marseille, but confidences from LFI executives suggest that he would not be opposed to proposing his candidacy in a constituency in eastern Paris. On March 27, he had himself indicated, in a public meeting in Marseille, that he would “probably do other campaigns”… Maybe in a few weeks, then.
Also, Adrien Quatennens hopes that La France insoumise will manage to “impose a cohabitation“ to Emmanuel Macron at the end of the legislative elections scheduled for June. “When we see the configuration of yesterday, it will be a question of the legislative elections to do what is necessary because Emmanuel Macron may not have a majority in the Assembly”, he said on France Inter on April 11. , before making some predictions: “If all of those who voted for Mélenchon yesterday renew their vote in the legislative elections, we are able to impose another majority on him”.
The same goes for Ugo Bernalicis, LFI deputy for Lille who was delighted with the “Soviet scores in the Lille metropolis” (Mélenchon’s candidacy won 42.70% of the votes in Lille) admitting that if he “intended to win” in the national level, he has the “sense of accomplishment” at home. And to conclude with his ambitions for the legislative elections: “And that we are not only 17 Insubordinate deputies in the National Assembly.” (interview for The voice of the North). later on Twitter, he arrested the LFI activists who attacked Fabien Roussel, some of whom went so far as to vandalize the headquarters of the Communist Federation of the North. He recalled that “there is no point in attacking the PCF”, and that it was better “to focus one’s energy on the future rather than on the bitterness of the past”. For Frédéric Mathieu, LFI deputy in Rennes, the Insoumis “are already in battle order for the legislative elections, we must send the maximum number of deputies from the Popular Union” to the National Assembly to “trigger a cohabitation and apply our program” (interview given to West France).
We will also quote Clémentine Autain, deputy and great figure LFI: “We must seek convergence by trying to understand why Jean-Luc Mélenchon stands out and why he likes”. For her, restoring hope and “meaning to what a united France is” will go through the reconquest of the other left-wing parties. But in fact, the merger will not be simple. If Anne Hidalgo herself said she wanted to engage in the “reconstruction” of a “united and popular left” (during her speech on the evening of April 10), differences remain. For Carole Delga in particular, president of the Regional Council of Occitania and active member of the PS (told as a future leader by many experts), the “difference between the socialists and Jean-Luc Mélenchon” would be that the PS is “against communitarianism” and believes that “the law is always above faith”. “We are not anti-Republican. We are deeply European. We are the Republican left who loves the company”, she continued, seeking to differentiate herself from the rebellious vision. But she remained lucid, acknowledging that “when you have 2 on an exam, you work before representing yourself” and that what awaited the left-wing parties is a “collective work of gathering and redesigning the line in clarity with everyone” (remarks made on the France 2 set on the evening of April 10). Thus second round has not even taken place yet that the entire left seeks to gather its forces for the “third round”, that of the legislative elections.