how Mélenchon burst into the TF1 event

Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard will face each other during a televised debate tomorrow evening, five days before the first round of the legislative elections. Despite the choice of the left, the Prime Minister and the leader RN call on Jean-Luc Mélenchon to participate.

Tomorrow evening, five days before the first round of the early legislative elections, the representatives of the three major political forces in the race will confront each other during a televised debate. Jordan Bardella will represent the National Rally and the coalition of the union of the right, Gabriel Attal will be the path of the presidential majority and the alliance under the Ensemble banner and Manuel Bompard was chosen by the New Popular Front.

The debate will take place at 9 p.m. this Tuesday on TF1 and will be orchestrated by Gilles Bouleau and Anne-Claire Coudray. With equal speaking time, the three candidates will have to defend their project and their ideas. Manuel Bompard will have to find his place between two adversaries who already faced each other a month ago. In the middle of the European campaign, on May 23 on France 2, the Prime Minister and the leader of the RN had, in fact, debated in front of nearly 3.6 million viewers.

This is a crucial meeting in the campaign for the two opposition leaders who hope to obtain an absolute or at least relative majority at the end of these anticipated legislative elections in order to impose cohabitation on the President of the Republic from July. According to an Ifop-Fiducial survey for LCI, Le Figaro And South Radio As of June 23, the National Rally has currently received 35.5% of voting intentions in the first round, followed by the NFP with 29%. The presidential camp is falling behind with only 21% of voting intentions.

Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella play on the disagreement of the left

The presence of Manuel Bompard was surprising. Gabriel Attal estimated last week that it is “those who have been more or less identified as potentially Prime Minister at the end of these elections” who should participate in the debate, that is to say for the head of the government “Mr. Bardella for the extreme right and its allies, Mr. Mélenchon for the extreme left and its allies”. This Monday, June 24, he reiterated his desire to confront Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the detriment of Manuel Bompard. “I invite him to come and debate. Tomorrow evening, on another channel, I will debate with Jordan Bardella and La France insoumise Nupes who sent, in a way, a spokesperson for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, Mr. Bompard”, said Gabriel Attal on CNews adding that “Mr. Mélenchon reaffirmed this weekend that he wanted to govern the country if the Nupes coalition won.” Jordan Bardella put himself in the same position during his June 24 press conference. “It’s a debate of candidates for the post of Prime Minister,” he said. “I invite Jean-Luc Mélenchon to participate” and “not to move forward in disguise,” he added.

As Gabriel Attal a little earlier this Mondaythe president of the RN also made it known that he wanted the leader of the Insoumis to participate to the debate organized between representatives of the three blocs Tuesday evening on TF1, the left being represented by Manuel Bompard, coordinator of LFI. It’s “a debate of candidates for the post of Prime Minister,” said Jordan Bardella, who himself is participating, as well as the current Prime Minister. “I invite Jean-Luc Mélenchon to participate” and “not to move forward in disguise,” he told L’Insoumis.

An opinion that is not shared by everyone. If the name of Jean-Luc Mélenchon had, in fact, been mentioned initially, the former presidential candidate is not unanimous. According to Jérôme Guedj, socialist candidate, on Franceinfo, the rebellious leader is “the problem, because today, he embodies this left which frightens part of the left electorate”, an opinion widely shared within the NFP itself. The rebellious leader had thus declined TF1’s offer, ensuring that “the New Popular Front had not yet designated its prime minister candidate. It is therefore up to the leaders of the major parties in our coalition to go to this type of debate “. He also responded to Gabriel Attal’s call: “The leaders of our parties represent us from now on. Do not designate the representatives of others. Do not despise them”, he shared on X.

Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists, finally explained to Public Senate why Manuel Bompard was chosen. After negotiations, the New Popular Front agreed that each party representative would “each go to a debate.” Thus, “Manuel Bompard will be on TF1, Olivier Faure will be on France 2, I will take care of the BFMTV debate which will take place between the two rounds and the Communist Party will be our representative in the CNews debate”, she clarified. France 2 has, in fact, announced that a debate will be broadcast Thursday evening at 8:50 p.m. with Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Olivier Faure, first secretary of the PS and representative of the NFP, in the program The event presented by Caroline Roux.