Jean-Luc Mélenchon is not running for the legislative elections but is actively campaigning with the New Popular Front. Will he be Prime Minister if he wins? The executive is in any case campaigning on this hypothesis.
Since the formation of a New Popular Front in view of the legislative elections, a question has agitated the campaign: in the event of victory for the coalition of the left and cohabitation with Emmanuel Macron, who will be appointed Prime Minister? A question to which their Macronist adversaries do not hesitate to answer: “The Prime Minister would necessarily be Jean-Luc Mélenchon”, said Gabriel Attal again this Thursday, June 20 at a press conference.
A hypothesis which has the weight of a strong argument against the New Popular Front, at a time when Jean-Luc Mélenchon has become a repulsive figure for many voters. However, on the side of the New Popular Front, they refuse to designate a potential head of government in the event of victory. Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who dreamed of Matignon two years ago, of course indicated that he felt “capable”, three days after the dissolution of the National Assembly, while refusing to “impose himself” . “If you think that I should not be Prime Minister, I will not be,” he insisted, Monday June 16, on France 3.
Mélenchon declined a debate against Attal and Bardella
“I’m not asking for anything,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon said again. 20 minutesadding: “Matignon is not an existential subject. I am not building a career. The rebels have produced capable leaders”, before quoting LFI deputies Manuel Bompard, Mathilde Panot and Clémence Guetté.
As a token of goodwill, Jean-Luc Mélenchon declined an invitation to debate with Gabriel Attal and Jordan Bardella, arguing that “the New Popular Front has not yet nominated its Prime Minister candidate”. It is ultimately the new boss of La France insoumise, Manuel Bompard, who will debate Monday June 25 on TF1.
“It won’t be Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” says Glucksmann
It must be said that the hypothesis of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s arrival at Matignon does not please many of his allies, nor a certain number of voters. “In the end, it will not be Jean-Luc Mélenchon,” insisted Raphaël Glucksmann on Friday June 14 on France Inter, arguing “that we need a person who creates consensus within the groups that are there.” “Jean-Luc Mélenchon will not be Prime Minister,” socialist Carole Delga also decided last Thursday.
Even the rebellious François Ruffin makes this observation: “In all honesty, during the first door-to-door knocking, his name comes up, and with concern. And this is why I think he is right to withdraw” , reported the deputy for Somme to Courrier Picard, before concluding: “It seems obvious that he will not be Prime Minister.”
However, the “purge” carried out in the ranks of La France insoumise seems to testify to the influence that Jean-Luc Mélenchon maintains over his party: by not reinvesting five deputies who had taken the liberty to criticize the direction of the party, LFI gives credence to the criticisms made of it lacking internal democracy. Is Jean-Luc Mélenchon preparing his big comeback by getting rid of dissonant voices? The former Marseille MP denies this, assuring that the party simply wanted, through its nominations, to keep “the promise of expanding candidacies to union and association activists” in winnable constituencies.