A case that never ends. Following Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s new support for Adrien Quatennens, who returned to the seats of the National Assembly on Wednesday, some of the militants of La France insoumise are angry and have suspended their actions. However, inadvertently weakening the movement.
“I really have the impression that we have not learned anything from our mistakes since September. It is unbearable that we support him like this again after his conviction and his minimization of the facts, ”says a young rebellious Parisian from BFMTV.com.
Quatennens, “a very dear friend” of Mélenchon
“It almost makes me want to cry. We have the impression that we will never get out of this matter”, this law student also advances.
On the viewer this time, after months of controversy, the words of the former presidential candidate. Two days after the return of the deputy from the North to the Palais Bourbon as an unregistered person – he is excluded from his group until April 13 -, Jean-Luc Mélenchon wanted to warm up.
Asked about the advisability of resuming his parliamentary work on France 2, the former presidential candidate said “of course” he would support him, recalling that Adrien Quatennens was “a very dear friend.”
A forum with a thousand signatures
The agenda of the elected Hauts-de-France, however, seems poorly chosen, in the midst of pension reform. “It would be a mistake” to return today in view of the “media moment” that Alexis Corbière had also announced on the eve of his return to LCI.
This event also comes just days after the posting of a forum signed by over 1,000 LFI or Nupes activists calling for “the exclusion of Adrien Quatennens.”
If it does not include any heavyweights of the movement, it makes the heavy atmosphere official in the action groups. Around half of them are currently on a militant strike – which means that they no longer comply or stop towing – or have announced in a press release that they are disassociating themselves from the sanction taken against the deputy.
“We were disappointed during this period”
At issue: Adrien Quatennens’ suspension from the group for 4 months – the length of his suspended sentence – and his return conditional on following an accountability internship for perpetrators of domestic violence.
“We were a bit disappointed during this period. Otherwise, we would not have written this text so that Adrien Quatennens was excluded from our movement,” further advances Alan Lambert, a young rebel who co-wrote the forum.
“I am convinced that the group must make a new decision to agree with our values,” the activist still judges.
“I thought it was very serious”
Following his conviction, Adrien Quatennens’ words caused confusion in his own camp. The former LFI headliner said for the first time that he was the victim of a “media lynching” in the voice of the northbefore evoking on BFMTV a “serious dispute with reciprocal threats”.
If the activists have publicly raised their voices, it is because the leadership of the movement has not given them satisfaction. At the beginning of December, Manuel Bompard, whose arrival at the head of the LFI was highly questioned, received an initial text signed by 6 action groups, without eliciting the slightest response.
Enough to push the young insoumis from Poitiers to come out of the woods and announce the “indefinite strike” of the action group.
“There I told myself that it was really serious. Because the strength of our movement is our posters, our flyers, the fact that we are seen in demonstrations in places other than Paris. At a time when our activists no longer want to military, we find ourselves in a certain way paralyzed”, deciphers a rebel deputy.
“We really don’t have the heart for it anymore”
His positioning is obviously snowballing. About ten days later, around twenty LFI collectives expressed their anger and joined this militant strike. With various methods of action: while some have decided to cease militant activity, many others continue their activities but refuse to show up under the LFI banner.
“We are here and we are doing the job because the pension reform is dangerous for France. In a way, this fight unites us. But it is true that we no longer have a heart for it, ”she still deciphers. a rebellious young man
Beyond the Quatennens case, there is also the question of internal democracy, which had been pointed out after the arrival of Manuel Bompard as coordinator of the movement, the equivalent of number 1 in the party. Raquel Garrido had thus lamented with BFMTV.com “a grotesque self-proclamation”.
“We let the situation escalate”
Added to this was criticism of the functioning of the party, without premises in the territories and with little possible feedback from the activists.
“Our disappointment is also strongly expressed because we let the situation escalate. We have no space to be heard,” laments Yeelen Ravier, a young rebel from Hauts-de-Seine and municipal councilor for Asnières.
“The only ones on the left who can create a mass movement”
However, the activists do not hesitate to damage a political tool that allowed them to gather 21.5% of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections last April and multiply by 4 the number of LFI deputies in the last elections. legislative.
“I am convinced that we are the only ones on the left who can create a mass movement,” believes the rebel Alan Lambert who refuses to “prioritize the fight between the exclusion of Adrien Quatennens and the pension reform.”
The case has obviously left its mark on other parts of the rebel ranks. Jean-Luc Mélenchon obtained 20% popularity at the beginning of January according to an Elabe poll for the echoes. This is his lowest measurement since the presidential elections.
Source: BFM TV
