On Wednesday evening, the Parisian candidates of the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), gathered in a room in the 11th arrondissement, were all on the same line. Against Emmanuel Macron and the government of Elisabeth Borne, they tried, each in turn, to install the confrontation, in a landscape marked by the low noise campaign of the National Rally and the attempt of electoral anesthesia of the leader of the ‘State. The ballot on June 12 and 19 will be “the third round which should allow the choice between Emmanuel Macron, the government of Elisabeth Borne and us, between the policy of permanent crisis, culpable inaction and that of responsibility before the country and in front of history, launched in introduction Sophia Chikirou (La France insoumise, LFI), candidate in the 20th arrondissement. No more technocracy, no more oligarchy, no more Macronie. Take us, take the Nupes, take it as an instrument, a way to end their world. Among the row of candidates giving their identities were missing the two Socialist Party postulants in Paris, Anne Hidalgo’s deputy, Olivia Polski, and Marine Rosset; the regional elected Dieynaba Diop took charge of the socialist speaking time.

In the legislative campaign, this meeting demonstrated a little more the attempt to personalize the ballot. This strategy, deployed by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, has one goal: to try to change the iron law of the Fifth Republic, which wants that since the reversal of the calendar, the legislative elections bring a majority to the elected president. In this equation, mobilization is key, because the progression of abstention between the presidential and the legislative elections can easily sign the failure of the ambitions of the Nupes. But, underlined the deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône, “if people think that we can win they will go down by packets, by bunches, by wagons”.

“The state is collapsing”

In turn, the communist Céline Malaisé, candidate in the 7th arrondissement, lambasted her competitor Renaissance, the government spokeswoman Olivia Grégoire, nicknamed the “government lie-bearer”. Julien Bayou, in the 11th arrondissement, mentioned Elise Fajgeles, rapporteur for an asylum and immigration bill, who, he said, throws children into detention centers. Jean-Luc Mélenchon went to the podium last, to boast, against the macronists who shout at the coalition of circumstance, an alliance unprecedented in its magnitude. “The most united, the most dynamic, the most proposing can lead,” he said.

Erased the invectives of the past, the boss of LFI now has a kind word for almost everyone in his interventions. For example for the former national secretary of the French Communist Party while the current one, Fabien Roussel, is not very present in the events of the alliance: “My dear Pierre”, he launched to Pierre Laurent, seated in the first rank. To environmentalists, he gave pledges of quasi-federalism, calling for a freeze on oil prices “not just in France, but everywhere in Europe. Because no producer can say no to 450 million consumers.” “It is unthinkable that the green measures we plan to reduce greenhouse gases will be settled on the back of popular consumption,” he added. Precariousness of the public hospital, national education, “decline of democracy” under the previous five-year term, accumulation of attacks on freedoms, the litany of criticism was provided. “Gradually, the state is collapsing around us. (…) Ensuring security around a football match is over, ”he said, after the fiasco of managing the Champions League final.

Emmanuel Macron, he felt, seems to have grown accustomed to being at the center of a “default vote”. “He continues to enter legislative elections where no one tells us about the beginning of the program,” he quipped. As for the diatribes aimed at Nupes and its leader – a “Gallic Chavez”, according to the Minister of the Economy, Bruno Le Maire – Jean-Luc Mélenchon would almost have fun. He assures her, “I’m not telling you we’re going to create a paradise, but I guarantee you that overnight we’ll end hell.” »