This is the story of a very cumbersome absentee. So cumbersome, this Jean-Luc Mélenchon, that a simple message of 140 characters, published on a social network mainly monopolized by journalists and politicians, turned the Nupes upside down, angered the unions, divided his own political party ( BIA); and, even worse, gave the advantage to the government of Elisabeth Borne and the majority in the battle for pension reform. “Incomprehensible withdrawal of PCF amendments. Why rush to Article 7? The rest of the law doesn’t count? Can’t wait to get beat up?” strummed the third man of the last presidential election, who in fact calls on his rebellious flock not to withdraw their amendments and to continue the obstruction in the National Assembly.
Table amendments by the thousands, prevent article 7, the one that aims to push back the legal retirement age from 62 to 64, from being discussed in the National Assembly… However, this was not the plan of left. When La France insoumise appoints François Ruffin as leader to fight the reform in the hemicycle, the latter sets his conditions to Nupes. It takes up in extenso the demand of the unions, the one that Laurent Berger repeated before the Socialist deputies at the beginning of January: we must go as far as the debate on Article 7 to push the deputies of Renaissance and LR to take a position on the measure of age. Republican deputy Aurélien Pradié has sown doubt in his political family and the majority is not so stable, believes Berger. “A victory is possible. The real battle is against the 64s,” he told the Socialists.
“Big danger”
The rebels are pouting, the communists too. They have things to say, amendments to defend and the slightest victory is good to take to help “the street” to increase pressure over the weeks. “I am not one of the people who think that it is in the National Assembly that it is happening”, confided Manuel Bompard, the lieutenant of Mélenchon, before the arrival of the text in the hemicycle. He says he is not opposed to the idea of discussing Article 7, but the vote “is a big danger”. “When did a defeat in the Assembly help a social movement?” Asked those around Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
LFI does not agree with Laurent Berger and does not defend less than 13,000 amendments. Article 47-1 of the Constitution used for this reform by the government, which limits in time the debates, makes the situation blocked on all sides. Clause 7 of the bill is moving away. Laurent Berger gets annoyed, heats up his phone by multiplying calls to deputies. Socialists and environmentalists are withdrawing a host of amendments to move forward. In turn, Philippe Martinez, the boss of the CGT, claims that the debates accelerate so that we discuss Article 7. The Communists give in and also withdraw their amendments. Everyone expects the Rogue to do the same.
“It’s not them who made 22%, it’s us”
Jean-Luc Mélenchon is outvoted within the Nupes, but refuses to break. He believes again and again that Laurent Berger’s tactics are not the right one. “Just because socialists, environmentalists and communists want to toe the CFDT line doesn’t mean it’s a strategy that works. They’re not the ones who made 22% in the presidential election, it’s us”, we whisper in the entourage of the rebellious leader who observes in spite of himself that the demonstrations, although very followed, do not change the situation or make the government bend. He wants to move on to the next step: the renewable strike and a blockage of the country on March 7.
But what Mélenchon abhors the most in the sequence is to see that the Communists affirm loud and clear that his rebels are preparing to withdraw their thousands of amendments to go as quickly as possible to Article 7. All this deserved well a tweet to reframe Berger, the Nupes and, as long as it takes, the Communists. The rebellious leader never balks at biting the band at Fabien Roussel, whom he still accuses of having made him lose in April 2022. This tweet kills two birds with one stone.
“Our line is not the Berger line”
However, LFI is also divided on strategy. A good part of the 74 deputies, including François Ruffin, Clémentine Autain, Raquel Garrido, Alexis Corbière or even Eric Coquerel, do not share the strategy desired by Jean-Luc Mélenchon. They believe that we must rally to the wishes of the unions and the rest of the Nupes. They too believe that a victory on Article 7 is possible, as evidenced by the much closer score than expected in the vote on Article 1, the defeat on Article 2 and the ever-increasing number of absences from the ranks of the majority. There are allies to recover, and in particular within the group Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer et Territoires, this same group that Emmanuel Macron tried to seduce last November. Eric Coquerel gives Laurent Berger the number of deputy Bertrand Pancher, the president of LIOT.
Mélenchon refuses to give in. “Parliamentary strategy is not up to the unions to impose it, justifies those around him. The debates on financing, on superprofits, on the 1200 euros… These are subjects that matter, with which we have been able to show that the macronists had not worked. Our line is not the Berger line. Thursday, a meeting between the leaders of Nupes, well before Mélenchon draws his tweet, puts the problem of obstruction on the table. Socialists, communists, environmentalists and LFI “slingers” are trying to convince their comrades to withdraw the 1,800 or so amendments that remain to arrive at article 7 by Friday afternoon at the latest.
Internal voting
The LFI group comes up against the annoyance of the rest of the left. An internal vote is therefore organized to decide the line. The score is tight, especially since a good twenty rebellious deputies are absent. 25 voted to withdraw the amendments in order to advance to Article 7, 26 followed Mélenchon’s wishes and refused to speed up the debate. “It’s not the Nupes who made this choice, it’s a minority part of the Nupes, 26 rebellious deputies and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, out of 151 elected leftists. It’s crazy…” laments a socialist. Mélenchon is, by the admission of those close to him, “inflated to the block”. He draws his tweet and, in the evening at a meeting in Montpellier in front of 1,400 people, reframes his left-wing allies: “We are rebels within an alliance called Nupes, but above all rebels, and we takes care of our insubordination.”
On the side of the government and Renaissance, we are rubbing our hands. They too did not really want to take the risk of voting on raising the legal age to 64, an unpopular measure in public opinion, including in the electorate of Emmanuel Macron. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s tweet weakens the Nupes who had scored a few points lately. The left had put the Minister of Labor Olivier Dussopt in difficulty on the minimum pension at 1200 euros, a decoy in reality. Even the Republican deputies, who had no desire to vote for Article 7 for the same reasons as the majority, revel in Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s message. And one of them told L’Express: “Saved by Mélenchon!”