Environmental MP Sandrine Rousseau In the colloquium held at the summer university on August 26, the public whistled. France headstrong In Valence, near Lyon (middle-east). About 750 kilometers further north, a day before the obedient MP suffered a similar fate. Clementine Autain At the summer meeting of the Greens in Le Havre. These seemingly anecdotal events current voltages between different parties french left forming a unitary coalition NUPES.
Socialist Party (PS), Submissive France (LFI) Jean-Luc Melenchon, green And communists We are faced with a new political trend determined by different strategies. european elections Next year. Later roughness These four formations, which did not participate in the second round of the presidential elections to be held in April 2022 for the second time in a row, took the stage jointly in the parliamentary elections held in June last year, ending the decades-old division.
Thanks to this alliance NUPES He received 151 out of a total of 577 deputies and became a deputy. main opposition force in the National Assembly. But only two years later, this Coalition may be broken and each party to present separately in June 2024. Will this be just a temporary hiatus? Or is it a return to the path of fragmentation that has been fatal to the French left in recent years? Time will show us.
Is it just a temporary split?
European Ecology Greens (EELV) has already said that it will have its own list and has chosen its candidate. did the same Communist Party. Although everything shows that they will follow the same path, the Socialists are skeptical. “I don’t think there is a single list for Europeans. (…) An alliance between PS and LFI alone seems impossible to me”, explains EL PERIÓDICO DE CATALONIA of the socialist Grupo Prensa Ibérica Gaston LavalHe’s in charge of the rose party in the X district of Paris. “We have one fundamental difference: European vision. Socialists and greens are federalists, but communists and disobedients are not,” he adds, to justify this fragmentation.
Last year, NUPES lawmakers voted the same in most of the votes in the National Assembly. What did it reflect ideological affiliations. At the domestic policy level, however, differences remain in international politics, especially with regard to the EU and the EU. ukraine war. “It’s true that their positions on Europe were very different five years ago, but the LFI has put aside most European critical assumptions and they are more similar now,” argues Stefano Palombarini, a political scientist close to Mélenchon’s party.
“While the Left was united a year ago, it is now very divided,” complains this professor at the University of Paris 8. Palombarini fears that this split will have repercussions in elections other than the European elections, but it will also weigh on it. The weight of the left in a seemingly favorable context. despite tenant marked by inflation And high temperatures In the second half of August, to the news of the progressive parties in the last weeks, rapper medina Greens and disobedients – accused of anti-Semitism by the far-right – were invited to summer universities. And recently due to the government’s desire to ban abaya tunics in schools and institutes.
Possible return of Ségolène Royal
Besides the programmed ones, fragmentation in europe It is also due to strategic differences. The 2024 elections “also They can serve to rebalance the weight of each party within NUPES”Laval agrees. This socialist militant thinks that this split will be temporary and that left parties will reunite in the next period. municipality of 2026 And 2027 presidential and parliamentary elections.
As a result of the result in the last presidential election—Mélenchon (22%), clearly ahead of other left-wing candidates who did not reach the 5%—the obedient left led the singing voice of this coalition last year. . The other three parties want to take advantage of the Europeans to gain weight. roughness. These elections are the only elections in France not run by a single government. double-round electoral system and helpful votes are less available. If 5 percent of the votes exceed the threshold, each party is represented.
According to recent polls, left-wing parties are expected to gain more MPs if these are presented separately. However, if they appear united, they will argue about getting first place. National Regrouping far right Marine LePen and the party of the president Emmanuel Macron. This may be a message of some optimism for the progressive voter in the face of the 2027 presidential election: “If we compete separately, we will lose. If we want to go to the second round, we must be united,” said Mélenchon on 24 August: Yolanda Diaz Those most supportive of the unity of the left for Europeans at the LFI summer university.
At the same event, Segolene RoyalIn the 2007 presidential election, the 69-year-old candidate for the PS candidate and François Hollande’s environment minister ran for the presidency. unit list. A proposal that did not attract other left-wing parties, but was supported by Mélenchon. The next Europeans cannot be determined solely by the return of the split. roughnessbut also with another unexpected turn: the return of the media but also of the controversial Ségolène Royal.