Often, Mélenchon varies. Very often. Forgotten his “not a voice for the RN” between the two rounds of 2017, so ambiguous, so controversial. Some on the left were frightened when they saw Jean-Luc Mélenchon, flanked by Rima Hassan who was wearing a keffiyeh, advancing towards the desk at 8:15 p.m. What was he going to say? A speech on the tone of sound and fury? A little polemical sentence that would weaken the New Popular Front, once again? A move against the social democrats? To tell the truth, the rebellious leader surprised more than one. He didn’t procrastinate. “In the event of a triangular, if the National Rally (RN) is in the lead and we are third, we will withdraw our candidacies. Our instructions are simple, direct and clear: not one vote, not one more seat for the RN”, did he declare Sunday night. For once, Raphaël Glucksmann, his social-democratic nemesis from Place Publique, followed suit and called on all the parties that came in third place to withdraw from the RN.
With 12 million French people voting for the National Rally in the first round of the legislative elections, the left no longer wants to play bickering. From 6 p.m., the feathered leaders of the New Popular Front met one last time to decide on a voting instruction: withdrawal when third. The matter was not easy at LFI where withdrawing for the benefit of certain LRs or a former minister, such as Élisabeth Borne – who came second – is no mean feat. It was Jean-Luc Mélenchon himself who finished deciding among his people. “We are going to elect Ms. Borne or Mr. Marleix. It’s not easy to say,” said Olivier Faure on the France 2 set.
Republican front?
Coming in second, the left bloc is progressing in terms of votes but is still far behind the RN. It presents itself as the last one standing against the far right, the last rampart against the RN, front against front. The rebellious leader has been predicting the fall of the Macronist bloc for years: “in the end, it will be them or us.” It will still be necessary for the three-way races not to proliferate, and for the Ensemble candidates who came in third to withdraw in favor of the New Popular Front. Because the republican front, once legion, is no more. Even Macronie has lost its compass: Emmanuel Macron is calling for a truly democratic gathering without defining it, Édouard Philippe a “neither LFI nor RN”, François Bayrou, for his part, wants a case-by-case basis – Ruffin, it’s yes, but others, it’s no. For whom? Why? Only Gabriel Attal sent a more frank signal, repeating word for word a certain Jean-Luc Mélenchon in 2017: “not a single vote for the National Rally.”
A first round as a lesson for the left, also and above all. Proof by example that the “chaotic” nature of the hemicycle since 2022, that the endless controversies and the anti-Semitic sallies of certain Insoumis since October 7 have solidified a glass ceiling above it. In fact, this strategy will have caused collateral victims: the communist Fabien Roussel, although an internal opponent of the Mélenchon line within the Nupes then the New Popular Front, was eliminated in the first round by the RN. François Ruffin is in an unfavorable ballot in his constituency of the Somme. The social democrats remain, who are regaining strength and counting their troops on the eve of a second round that will also serve as a clarification on the left: can the balance of power, the one in progress since 2017, which gives pride of place to Mélenchon and his Insoumis, be reversed? Until then, the Insoumis will have to correct themselves in the hope of taking advantage of the gesture made this Sunday evening towards Macronie.
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