LFI is considering “technical mergers” with other left-wing forces on March 22, during the second round of municipal elections, in order to prevent the victory of the nationalist right.
The national coordinator of LFI, Manuel Bompard, called on Sunday for “technical mergers” of left-wing lists in the second round of municipal elections to prevent the victory of the right and the RN, despite the very violent exchanges in recent days with former socialist partners. Interviewed on the program “Dimanche en politique” on France 3, he stated that these agreements would not necessarily lead, in case of victory, to a common management of the cities. “I think it is the responsibility of the left to come together in the second round,” he said.
“We do not always agree on the programmatic proposals that are made, and therefore that means we do not commit to participating in the management of the city alongside others,” he explained. “But it means that we are organizing a kind of ‘anti-fascist’ front in the second round of the election,” he added. “It is the principle of what we call technical fusion,” he clarified.
Rules for municipal elections provide that lists that have obtained more than 10% of the votes in the first round can maintain themselves in the second round. From 5%, they can also organize a merger with another list. Alliances in the second round on the left have become one of the key issues of these municipal elections because the relations between PS and LFI have reached a peak of tension. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon undermines the cause he claims to defend,” deplored the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure in Sunday’s edition of Le Parisien.
“The fact of reconnecting with anti-Semitic groups that we thought were unimaginable on the left has been for us the crossing of the unacceptable,” he insisted. Jean-Luc Mélenchon sparked outraged comments by making ironic remarks about the Jewish-sounding names of Euro MP Raphaël Glucksmann and American pedocriminal Jeffrey Epstein. Manuel Bompard denounced on Sunday “a dishonest cabal” against LFI and judged the PS’s position “irresponsible.”
