A very first meeting, in June 2022, during a debate organized by the media Street Press. The exchange between Raquel Garrido (LFI) and Aly Diouara (La Seine Saint-Denis au Coeur), candidates at the time in the legislative elections in Seine Saint-Denis, turned sour. “The national representation of 93 does not reflect the population of 93,” he says, eyeing the photo of the Nupes candidates invested in the department. “Here, there are no parachutes, we are only militants of the 93!” retorts Garrido. “I see parachutes. You yourself…” Raquel Garrido, living in the department, is indignant. The tone rises very loudly, and the floor is given to Sandrine Rousseau, also invited on the set, who remains a little speechless in the face of the very lively exchanges. The two never met again.
They will surely meet again in the coming weeks, in the fifth constituency of Seine Saint-Denis, where each is running for a deputy position. Because Aly Diouara was finally invested by the Insoumis in place of Raquel Garrido, who will still compete in dissent under the banner of the New Popular Front. But now certain polemical remarks from the second are rising to the surface. On social networks, in particular, where the territorial official at the town hall of Drancy had described Raphaël Glucksmann as a “Zionist candidate” during the European campaign, during which he had, with his small party, campaigned for Manon Aubry. During a campaign in support of the Popular Union, the Sequano-Dionisyen had called in a video to “clear” Raphaël Glucksmann and Emma Rafowicz – both of Jewish origin – “accomplices in the genocide underway in Gaza”, then even though the head of the Place publique list had called for a ceasefire. Last May 6, again on “Our parties are not kind to left-wing Jews,” says Raquel Garrido.
“Berlin Conference” and support for Imam Iquioussen
In the summer of 2022, the activist who is very invested in the associative life of the department provides, on multiple occasions, his support for imam Iquioussen, deported to Morocco for having, according to the administrative court of Paris, “committed repeated acts of explicit and deliberate provocation to discrimination, hatred or violence against Jews, women and non-Muslims. In a tweet, the candidate had “supported the man […] victim of a racistly hostile climate”; he had estimated on X that it was an “institutional manhunt [le]”. Later in the month, he comments on a photo of the Blois campus, the summer university of the PS, where the main executives of the Socialist Party appear, and the Insoumis Clémentine Autain and Alexis Corbière: “Hello white people, Say … we’re not bothering you too much in your remake of the Berlin conference?”, in reference to the conference at the end of the 19th century establishing European collaboration for the sharing and division of Africa…
Very critical of the direction of the movement, Raquel Garrido was not kept informed of her ouster from the nominations, learning the news after leaving a TV set last Friday. “Faced with the fervor around the New Popular Front (NFP), the Insoumis came on our line: I thought we were going to stay together. They [l’état-major LFI] did it quickly, so that we didn’t have time to turn around,” she assures. modus operandi similar for the others concerned. Having broken their ban for two years with Jean-Luc Mélenchon, several of them were replaced in their constituency by new rebellious candidates more in line, a mild euphemism, “with the majority line”. Among them, Alexis Corbière, also outgoing MP for Seine Saint-Denis, Hendrik Davi, elected representative for Bouches-du-Rhône, Danielle Simonnet, MP for Paris, and Frédéric Mathieu, parliamentarian for Ille-et-Villaine. With the exception of the latter, all come under the NFP label.
Adrien Quatennens “also a victim of domestic violence”
Under the official banner, Sabrina Ali Benali will face Alexis Corbière on June 30 and July 7 in Seine Saint-Denis. The emergency doctor, presented as the incarnation of “the expansion of the New Popular Front to include union, associative and civil society forces”, is in reality close to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. An activist in the Left Party, she became a member of the rebellious Parliament of the Popular Union. A little less than two years ago, the candidate took a public position on social networks for Adrien Quatennens. “Today, we better understand the support of those close to Adrien Quatennens. They knew. They knew that he was also a victim of domestic violence […] In consultation, I had two women tell me ‘to be ready to do anything to make their husband dive, to keep the children, so that he earns as much as possible'”, she wrote in a tweet at the time. “Good level of feminism!”, sneers an Insoumise.
In Marseille and Rennes, there are also two supporters of the Mélenchonist line. Allan Popelard, in the Marseille city, is a member of the La Boétie Institute, reputed to be very close to Manuel Bompard, and “in Jean-Luc’s little papers”, according to his comrades. Marie Messmeur, in Ille-et-Vilaine, is a former member of the Jeunesses Socialistes and Génération.s.. Parachuted into the constituency, “she is there to knock down the plows”, alarms a socialist executive from the West. “She has an irrational hatred of the PS. You see Louis Boyard and his behavior? She’s the same, she’s tough,” he continues.
Beware of those who support the dissidents. “After the purge, it’s spring cleaning,” breathes Hendrik Davi. “Any person who runs my campaign is excluded from LFI. Anyone who leads an action group (which coordinates actions and other initiatives via their online platform of the Popular Union, Editor’s note) and who is on my side would see their action group dissolved. In my circle, the threat works rather well: I have lots of rebellious activists who told me that they could not do my campaign,” he continues. The method changes sometimes. In Paris, Danielle Simonnet’s action group has not been dissolved. But the elected official, as well as her supporters, were ousted. And since Friday, the group has been renamed in the name of Céline Verzeletti. The candidate invested in the constituency by La France Insoumise.
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