“Union of the left”, why no one believes in it anymore

On the left, it’s the traffic jam for 2022. Less than six months before the first round of the presidential election, the candidatures are multiple: Anne Hidalgo for the Socialist Party, Yannick Jadot for the environmentalists, Jean-Luc Mélenchon for La Insubordinate France, Fabien Roussel for the Communist Party, not to mention the former PS Minister Arnaud Montebourg. Everyone seems to have decided to go to the end of the campaign. However, according to an Ipsos-Sopra Steria survey for France Info and the Parisian, published Friday, 66% of supporters of the left want a single candidate to represent them in 2022. But the people of the left are not really optimistic. Only 36% of those questioned believe that this union will be done well before the first round. 20 Minutes returns to the reasons for this observation.

Ego war

This is, of course, the main obstacle to the unity of the left. With the approach of a presidential election, each candidate hopes to make the union… but only if it is behind his name. As for the rebels, it is estimated that Jean-Luc Mélenchon is best placed to win the left, with the 19.58% collected in the first round of the last presidential election and his slight lead in the current polls.

“It is not the game of bonneteau polls that must decide, refutes Stéphane Troussel, president of the PS of the departmental council of Seine-Saint-Denis and spokesperson for Anne Hidalgo. After his 19% in 2017, Jean-Luc Mélenchon did nothing for the rally, even theorizing the end of the right / left divide. Anne Hidalgo has behind her generations of local elected officials, many activists and a party capable of gathering 500 sponsorships. By virtue of its responsibilities and its international stature, it is the most able to bring people together ”.

In Yannick Jadot’s team, of course, we cannot at all imagine lining up behind another candidate, as the MEP had done in 2017. “We have seen it in European and municipal elections, the ecology has taken root for a long time, when the PS is losing momentum. Ecology is the new centrality and the unifying force of the left and the progressives ”, pleads his entourage.

Substantive differences

From a programmatic point of view, too, divergences persist. On phasing out nuclear power, or even more on Europe, as in 2017. “These people’s quarrels are actually nourished by structural programmatic differences, which mean that we could not govern together, assumes the rebellious deputy for Seine-Saint -Denis Eric Coquerel. We defend a disruptive program on Europe and ecology. We must break with the current European treaties, it is fundamental to apply our ideas. Hidalgo and Jadot represent, basically, a green capitalism, and a left of accommodation with the system ”.

Stéphane Troussel replied: “I still haven’t understood their famous plan A / plan B on Europe. We are claiming a European commitment, that does not mean being Eurobeaters. But at a time when Portugal, Spain, Denmark and soon Germany are managed by the left, it is time to reorient European policies towards the social and ecology ”, pleads the spokesperson. word of the socialist candidate. Another subject of tension: republican universalism, while Anne Hidalgo has regularly denounced the “ambiguities” of the Greens and rebels on these questions.

Let the voters speak

Among the leaders of the left, we no longer really believe in the union of the left. At least on the device side. “Social democracy is in the process of decomposition. That she manages, that does not concern us. We have another story to tell about societal change. We will continue to gain momentum on our themes, and strength will go to strength, the rally will take place, ”says MEP and former EELV boss David Cormand. “The parties must continue to talk to each other. But if the devices do not manage to make this rally, the voters will do it one way or another as they did in the last local polls, ”adds Stéphane Troussel. An observation also shared by Jean-Luc Mélenchon during an interview with L’Union in mid-October: “To repeat that the union of the parties is the key to victory, it is to give yards to be beaten! Our strategy is popular union: people come together on the measures they need. This is the key to victory ”.