Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposal for a single Nupes parliamentary group does not convince on the left

Nupes has four parties, but how many parliamentary groups will it have? While the initial project of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union has always consisted in ensuring, after the legislative elections, a group for each of the parties that make it up (La France insoumise, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, Socialist Party and Communist Party), Jean-Luc Mélenchon proposed, Monday June 20, that all the deputies elected under the label of the alliance on the left constitute a single and same parliamentary group. Read also: Legislative 2022 live: Christian Jacob reaffirms the independence of LR against Emmanuel Macron The cause of this change of position? “The loser, Mr. Macron, has embarked on a general solicitation operation which leaves us very worried,” he told reporters, referring to recent statements by Marc Fesneau and Olivia Grégoire, two ministers of the Borne government. For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, “they are ready to install the National Front on the Finance Committee”. The chairmanship of this important Assembly committee traditionally falls to the opposition. However, at this stage, if we divide the deputies of the Nupes between the four parties that compose it, it is the National Rally of Marine Le Pen which has the largest number of elected officials. “The left is plural” For Jean-Luc Mélenchon, this idea of ​​a single group of the left is “an element of clarification in the chaos that is advancing. It is not an injunction, but a proposal, ”he assured. “That does not prevent each party from having a delegation. But that, symbolically and politically, we declare Nupes as a political group in the National Assembly,” he added. “I do not propose the merger, there are distinct identities, but there is a need to be in a combat suit and, for that, you must have a single group in the Assembly”, finally estimated Mr. Melenchon. Read also: Legislative elections 2022: the presidential party caught up in degagism Very quickly after this declaration, the three partners of La France insoumise rejected such a hypothesis. The Socialist Party, Europe Ecologie-Les Verts and the French Communist Party reminded Agence France-Presse that the coalition agreement signed in early May provides for separate groups. “It was never about a single group. There will be a socialist group in the National Assembly,” said Pierre Jouvet, spokesperson for the PS. A little earlier, the president of the group of socialist and related deputies, Valérie Rabault, had already closed the door to such a hypothesis. “The left is plural, it is represented in its diversity in the National Assembly. It is a force at the service of the French people. Wanting to remove this diversity is a mistake, and I oppose it, ”tweeted the MP for Tarn-et-Garonne. “Four groups are stronger than one” “No question of merging into a single group”, for his part, reacted the spokesperson for EELV Alain Coulombel. The leader of the party, Julien Bayou, wanted to be diplomatic but firm: “We are complementary and our forces will be more effective in the National Assembly if we exist thanks to four groups rather than one. “I wonder about the interest of a single group which erases the sensitivities and the wealth of each and everyone, adds André Chassaigne, deputy of Puy-de-Dôme and heavyweight of the PCF. Moreover, four groups within the Assembly will be stronger than one: for the left, it will be more speaking time and more drawing rights – commissions of inquiry, parliamentary niches…” “We are favorable to an intergroup, but not a common group”, also underlined a close friend of the communist leader Fabien Roussel. In the National Assembly, Raquel Garrido, elected on Sunday against the leader of the Union of Democrats and Independents (UDI), Jean-Christophe Lagarde, for her part, welcomed Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s proposal. “The Assembly is a place of deliberation and it is our way of working at Nupes”, she explained, believing that “we will have to implement it permanently”. Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers The Macron camp fears a “total paralysis” after the legislative elections and evokes “a dissolution” of the Assembly in a year Le Monde with AFP