via Associated PressWill LFI’s outstretched hand to the PS make the Socialists explode?POLITICS – “I have never been on the line of the management and Olivier Faure. It is not going to change, a fortiori with this line which consists in saying that we are going to seek an agreement with LFI”. Questioned by The HuffPost, Stéphane Le Foll, former socialist minister, is more than critical of a possible strategic agreement between the PS and LFI in the legislative elections of June 2022. The day before, the National Council of the PS had nevertheless recorded the opening of discussions with the Unsubmissive. And the latter are in an open position: France Insoumise and Jean-Luc Mélenchon want to influence the next five years. The deputy of Bouches-du-Rhône dreams of being Prime Minister, regardless of the winner of the presidential election. But the road to Matignon is strewn with obstacles, starting with the necessary obtaining of a majority in the legislative elections. June 12 and 19. The Insoumis and their current 17 seats in the hemicycle need support, and they have therefore reached out to all left-wing parties. And this PS included despite a “calendar hiccup” which caused Mathilde Panot, president of the LFI group in the Assembly to close the door, in the JDD, Sunday April 17, while Olivier Faure said he was open to discussion in Libé the day before. “We were not aware of this interview when Mathilde spoke to the JDD”, we are assured at the HQ of the Insoumis. “The ball is in the court” of the PS“Welcome to all those for whom the program is suitable. If there are socialists who say that they have understood the lesson, that they agree to start from the program of the Popular Union, that they agree that comrade Mélenchon should be Prime Minister if we win, everything is fine” declared, more open than usual, Jean-Luc Mélenchon on BFMTV on April 20. The conditions are set. La France Insoumise wants to propose a “strategy” to the other parties, it will not give up its logo, but above all it wants its program l’Avenir en Commun to be “the basis on which we discuss”. At HuffPost, a well-informed rebel confirms that discussions will be open with the Communist Party, the NPA and EELV. The PS? “We are waiting for elements of clarification” both “programmatic and political in relation to the Hollande five-year term”. Translation: the Insoumis want the PS to position itself for the repeal of the El Khomri law and join them on retirement at 60 as well as the Sixth Republic. “The ball is in their court”, judges this official. On other subjects, Jean-Luc Mélenchon says he is ready to discuss. “Let’s deconstruct where there is disagreement. Let’s see why. (…) Is it surmountable? Is it not surmountable?” again opened the door the leader of the movement on BFMTV. The message was echoed in Olivier Faure’s speech to the members of the National Council. “We have real differences, which do not prevent an agreement between us,” he said on Tuesday evening, according to comments reported by Le Figaro. “If Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to be Prime Minister, the left must win and to win, it must be united”. Against “the diktat of La France insoumise” The first secretary of the Party had a resolution adopted on Tuesday evening which gives him a mandate “to initiate discussions to build the rally and lead (…) to common candidacies of the left and ecology”. As a warning, the resolution underlines that “there will be no rebirth without ruptures, in our behavior, in our organizations, in our proposals”. The text garnered the approval of 160 people out of more than 300 members. “It doesn’t pass like a letter in the post,” laughs Stéphane Le Foll. 75 council members voted against, 10 abstained, and 58 did not take part in the vote. But the majority decided to follow the strategy of Olivier Faure.Stéphane Le Foll deplores that after the bitter failure of Anne Hidalgo, “there was not even a question of knowing why we had lost”. He curry Jean-Luc Mélenchon who “with four days of the presidential election, announces that the result does not count and that the main thing is the 3rd round, the legislative elections in two months”. .@JLMelenchon The 2nd round is Sunday and the debate tonight. Jean-luc Melenchon is already talking about a 3rd round but who does he want to be the Prime Minister? Only one thing matters to him, that’s himself! https://t.co/jsBuVaDPRz— Stéphane Le Foll (@SLeFoll) April 20, 2022“Jean-Luc Mélenchon preempted the legislative elections. There’s not much to discuss from there,” he said. Asked about a possible compromise on the part of the Insoumis for the PS, he asserts: “there is not one”. He is not the only one on this line. According to a member of the national council, reported by Agence France Presse, two currents actually opposed the PS on Tuesday evening. That of the opening supported by Olivier Faure and “the Hidalgo-Delga line”, associated with the minority current of the PS, contrary to the Faure line. Hélène Geoffroy, mayor of Vaulx-en-Velin and defeated candidate for the investiture of the party, abounds in this direction: “We must not submit to the diktat of La France insoumise. Let’s stop being scared and fight the battles with our values,” she said, according to Le Figaro. “No more compass”“This party has no more compass. It is from the beginning in a strategy of obliteration and errors”, now criticizes Stéphane Le Foll. “The only reason to make an alliance with LFI today is to save the constituencies,” he adds. The PS holds 29 to date. Another puts the scope of this agreement into perspective: “If we follow their logic, we end up with only 34 constituencies in the whole of France!”, deplores this member of the national council, who opposed the outstretched hand of the party towards the Insoumis. “There are no irreconcilable lefts and we must hear the will of the voters of the left to gather us”, beats in breach Pierre Jouvet, spokesman of the PS, with HuffPost. At LFI, we assure that “in any case the distribution of applications is not the first subject”. “What matters is the strategic agreement with a majority ambition. Then the programmatic agreement and an agreement on all the constituencies, not just on fifty to keep the outgoing”, explains to HuffPost a source within the movement. The Insoumis want a single Popular Union candidate in each constituency. To decide who to send, they propose a proportional calculation based on the results of the presidential election. Which, out of the hundred most winable constituencies, would give ten candidates to the Communists, twenty to the Ecologists and the rest – 70 – for France Insoumise. Pending open discussions between the two camps, the PS has not been included in these calculations, imaginary for the moment. See also on The HuffPost: The proportional to the legislative elections, what would change?