While the PS agrees to discuss with the government to try to find a compromise on the 2025 budget, LFI sees this as a betrayal of the program of the New Popular Front.
New act of the internal war of the left. In question? The resumption of consultations on the 2025 budget with the government of François Bayrou. The Minister of the Economy, Eric Lombard, invited the opposition forces with the exception of the National Rally (RN) to discuss the future state budget which will have to be examined in Parliament shortly. On the left, all the parties responded favorably to the invitation, except the elected representatives of La France insoumise (LFI) who refuse to negotiate with the executive. If LFI rejected the government’s outstretched hand, it strongly criticized the fact that the Socialist Party (PS), the French Communist Party (PCF) and the Ecologies did not make the same decision.
“This way of negotiating behind the back of the New Popular Front (NFP) and against its program is a total disrespect for our alliance,” criticized Jean-Luc Mélenchon on X on the evening of Wednesday January 8, after the meetings of the PS, the PCF and the Ecologists with the Minister of the Economy. The leader of LFI went so far as to denounce a “little traditional left [qui] has nothing to offer and its negotiators […] just ridiculous servility.”
The all-or-nothing left is today the nothing left.
I want to achieve victories for French women and change the policy led for 7 years by Emmanuel Macron. I want there to be changes in the next 30 months in the field of pic.twitter.com/OIbbwHerI9
— Olivier Faure (@faureolivier) January 9, 2025
A harsh criticism which did not please the boss of the PS. In response, Olivier Faure insisted on the ineffectiveness of LFI’s strategy of wanting to impose “the entire program, nothing but the program” of the NFP on the government. “The all-or-nothing left is today the nothing left,” said the first secretary of the PS on TF1this Thursday, January 9. “What I want is to achieve victories, to ensure that the policy pursued for seven years can experience a change,” adds the same person, insisting on the need to reach a “compromise” on several subjects, notably on pension reform.
Olivier Faure also seems to believe that a compromise is possible: according to him, Bercy has not “vetoed” the change in the retirement age, even if he assures that “the discussion is extremely tense.” “This is already a change in itself, since until now there was always a kind of wall with the idea that we would not touch anything. There I feel that something has happened,” explains the socialist.
Mutual warnings and reproaches
The PS, like the other forces of the left, has been defending the repeal of the pension reform for months. This measure remains fundamental for the socialist left which however seems ready to make efforts on other points, unlike the LFI which clings to the NFP program and does not tolerate any deviation. The rebels who believe they are the only ones remaining loyal to the NFP warn the PS against the unpopularity that negotiating, or at least exchanging, with the government could cost them. “I am starting to feel the return of popular detestation of the PS at a post-Hollande level. Olivier Faure was lucky to have Nupes, it allowed the PS to return to demonstrations. Be careful, I warn them , the whistles could return sooner than expected,” warned LFI coordinator Manuel Bompard.
“We seek nothing other than to satisfy the French,” assured Olivier Faure on behalf of his party. On the contrary, he criticizes LFI for turning away from priorities because of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s “intransigence” and “presidential obsession”. Words which from both sides risk aggravating the divide between the two left-wing forces which has become increasingly visible in recent weeks.