While a possible appointment of Jean-Luc Mélenchon to Matignon in the event of victory divides the left, the founder of La France insoumise insisted that he was not “concerned by this battle”. He assures him: “I’m not having a career, all that is behind me”, he adds, maintaining however again “not to impose oneself” but not to “eliminate oneself” either. However, the shadow of this political figure should hang over the first major debate of the legislative elections this Tuesday evening.
Information to remember
⇒ Attal, Bardella and Bompard face off on TF1 at 9 p.m.
⇒ Mélenchon assures that he will respect the verdict of the polls if the RN has an absolute majority
⇒ Juvenile delinquency: Attal wants the minority excuse to become “the exception”
Attal, Bardella and Bompard face off on TF1 at 9 p.m.
Gabriel Attal, Jordan Bardella and Manuel Bompard will face off on the TF1 set Tuesday evening, while the far right is leading the polls five days before the first round of legislative elections. The Prime Minister, the president of the National Rally and the coordinator of La France insoumise will meet at 9 p.m. for this first major televised clash between the three blocs, in the home stretch of this lightning campaign.
It is a priori Jordan Bardella who has the most to lose during this evening in “prime time”. After its success in the European elections, the RN dominates the first round polls, with 36% of voting intentions according to Ifop, and can cherish the ambition of accession to historic power. It is ahead of the left-wing coalition New Popular Front (29.5%) and the presidential camp (20.5%).
Jean-Luc Mélenchon assures that he is “a candidate for nothing”
The leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon affirmed Monday evening that he would respect “by definition” the choice of the French if they were to give an absolute majority to the National Rally at the end of the early legislative elections. “He who is afraid of the sovereign people is not a democrat,” explained the three-time presidential candidate on France 2.
“Afterwards, it will be up to us to ensure that the National Rally respects the Republic and its fundamental principles,” added the founder of LFI, warning against the “hunt for dual nationals”, while the RN announced that he wanted to ban “extremely sensitive jobs” in the state apparatus from people with dual nationality.
On his ambitions for the post of Prime Minister, which are causing so much ink to flow on the left, the one who was a candidate for Matignon in 2022 after his score of 22% in the presidential election maintained that he was “a candidate for nothing”.
Macron is alarmed by the risk of “civil war”
In a new speech, with the podcast “Génération Do It Yourself”, the President of the Republic does not mince his words in the direction of the National Rally and La France insoumise. “The response of the extreme right” in terms of insecurity: “because it refers people to a religion or an origin, that is why it divides and pushes to civil war “, he said. And opposite, LFI offers “a form of communitarianism”, “but that is also the civil war behind it”.
“A President of the Republic should not say that,” replied Jordan Bardella, while Jean-Luc Mélenchon accused Emmanuel Macron of being “always there to set fires”.
Attal toughens his tone
Gabriel Attal wants the excuse of minority, a legal principle which means that a minor is punished less severely than an adult, is no longer possible “in principle” and becomes “the exception”. The Prime Minister, also head of the presidential camp’s campaign in the legislative elections, had debated the idea of attenuating the excuse of minority, after news items involving minors which had struck public opinion.
After a series of consultations, he admitted that there was “no consensus” but wanted to “move forward for that”. In an interview with Le Figaro posted online Monday evening, he proposed “reviewing the minority excuse in certain cases”: “In the reform that I am proposing, there will no longer be a minority excuse in principle, but the judge will be able to apply it by motivating it,” he explains.
NGOs criticize the shortcomings of the financial transactions tax
The tax on financial transactions as applied by France suffers from a lack of ambition and gray areas, criticize several NGOs in a report published a few days before the legislative elections, at a time when the left coalition is proposing a reform to boost its revenues.
“We have a super tax which could bring in enormous returns,” noted Gunther Capelle-Blancard, economist and author of a report on the subject, during a press conference held with several NGOs including Oxfam, Global Citizen, Global Health Action and ONE. Despite this, “we realize that this tax brings in much less” than it could, he continues. France received 1.8 billion euros from this tax in 2022, for a volume of transactions on French stocks estimated at 4,000 billion euros according to the report.