Legislature in France: LFI opens historically significant but difficult negotiations with PS

“We do not have the feeling that we discussed with the same PS two, three years ago,” LFI Manuel Bombard’s chief negotiator told reporters, adding that he had initiated other bilateral discussions. More than a week with EELV, PCF and NPA.

After securing a firm third place in the presidential election (21.95%) in the Assembly elections on June 12 and 19, the LFI shows its ambition to gain the prime ministership of Jean-Luc Mன்சlenchon. According to an Elabe poll released on Saturday, six out of ten French people want a majority against Emmanuel Macron. The president, determined to show a more social face, went to Cergy (Val d’Oise) on Wednesday, where the city received 48% of the vote for the leader of the Insoumis.

Manuel Bombard realized that after years of deep fractures caused by Ann Hidalgo’s attack on Jean-Luc Mலlenchon’s presidential campaign, there was “no seemingly insurmountable debate” with the PS.

“Francois Hollande’s desire to break with the PS is clear. They have no difficulty in repealing the El Gomrie Act. LFI MEP.

PS spokesman Pierre Jouvet, for his part, declared that “there was a constructive discussion that allowed us to move forward at some point, and there was no stopping point between us with the intent of reaching an agreement.”

“We are now expecting a public statement from the PS, which will allow us to record these consolidated points. We will see if that happens in the coming days. We will continue to discuss this matter,” Manuel Bombard warned.

Considering an agreement with Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party was a major turning point for the Socialists. Under duress, with 1.7% of the presidential vote, the PS is in danger of extinction.

The PS has been in the grip of tensions since its National Council voted eight days before its option to negotiate with the LFI for the June 12 and 19 assembly elections. In Le Figaro on Thursday, it defended Olivier Faure, its first secretary, as “not a coalition submission”. On Tuesday evening, he was criticized during a national office by the party’s minority, calling on those who thought he had “nothing left to do” to leave.

“The PS has no owners,” he replied, “the Socialists stand up.”

In an interview with Midi Libre on Thursday, Richard Ferrand, the LREM leader of the National Assembly and a former member of the PS, launched an “appeal to women and men on the left” to join the future president’s majority.

These are other types of tensions that have slowed down discussions between LFI and EELV since the beginning of the week. The LFI regretted on Wednesday that their authors seemed to be “going back” in their agreement on retirement at the age of 60, the freezing of fuel prices and the policy of disobedience in Europe “when it is necessary to use our program”.

Manuel Bombard, in particular, questioned the words of Yannick Jodot, who was reluctant to acknowledge the leadership of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

Greens leader Julien Bayou called a press conference on Wednesday to demand that the last point be “finance” in order to refute the differences between “blocking the price of petrol” and retirement at 60. He also acknowledged the need for a compromise in the EU.

In the volumes, sources of heated negotiations, Julien Bayou pointed out: “We first asked for 32 volumes out of the 100 best volumes, they asked us 16 volumes”, now ecologists are asking 20. Often the LFI “wants to be half-destroyed. Ecologists’ candidates,” he denounced.

For example, in Bordeaux, where the environmentalist is mayor, Léa Balage, one of the EELV voters, negotiator, says, “They give us the first, north or fourth block of the city, where there is an exit PS, and not the second in the center.”

In an interview with L’Humanité on Thursday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon sought to reassure: “We propose that everyone should have a parliamentary committee and at the same time an interim committee. And a common parliament, which “allows every organization to establish itself and the people to take action.”