Emmanuel Macron insisted that the Popular Front agreement gave 300 constituencies to LFI and provided for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in Matignon. Two pieces of information denied by the left.
“If there is one who must turn in his grave today, it is Léon Blum, thinking that we called a ‘popular front’ an electoral alliance which will make it possible to give 300 constituencies to La France insoumise” , Emmanuel Macron was indignant at a press conference this Wednesday morning. A figure brandished by the president when no official communication had yet been made by the left-wing forces in negotiations. However, in the process, the Socialist Party revealed the terms of an “agreement in principle” on the distribution of constituencies in this new “popular front”. He denies the president’s assertion.
According to a letter sent to its members, the PS indicates that La France insoumise will have 229 legislative candidates, while the socialists will have 175, EELV will have 92 and the PCF will have 50. The party founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon therefore obtains the largest number of constituencies within the coalition of the left, but far from the “300” put forward by Emmanuel Macron.
“It’s Mr. Mélenchon, I think”
The head of state was not content with inventing a figure to increase the influence of La France insoumise on this alliance of the left. He also insisted that Jean-Luc Mélenchon would be the candidate of the new Popular Front for the post of Prime Minister: “Who is the candidate of the far left bloc and associates? It’s Mr. Mélenchon, I think”, he said. -he affirmed in front of journalists.
“Jean-Luc Mélenchon will not be a candidate to be Prime Minister,” declared socialist Pierre Jouvet, active in the negotiations, on Tuesday on BFMTV. Affirmation confirmed by Olivier Faure but also by the boss of the communists, Fabien Roussel.
But for the President of the Republic, the temptation is too great to send voters back to the memory of the 2022 legislative elections, when Nupes campaigned with the slogan “Mélenchon Prime Minister”… before breaking up a few months later. Emmanuel Macron is well aware that the founder of LFI has become a repulsive figure for part of the left. He thus hopes to see the new attempt at a left-wing coalition experience the same collapse as its predecessor.