The rise of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party in the municipal elections is now threatening the dominance of the Socialist Party in the territories. Up until where?
Will the social democrats disappear from the French political landscape? Judging by the results of the first round of the municipal elections and the number of alliances between LFI and the PS, it is not unreasonable to ask the question.
In Toulouse, socialist François Briançon set the tone by announcing, on Monday morning, the merger of his list with that of the rebellious Piquemal, who came ahead of him. And it doesn’t matter that he promised during his campaign that there would be “no political agreement” with the Mélenchonists. The Capitol and the urban community are worth some big deals… It will then be the turn of Limoges, Besançon, Clermont-Ferrand, Nantes, even though the incumbent mayor Johanna Rolland is the number two of the Socialist Party, then Brest and even Tulle in the face of François Hollande, the deputy of Corrèze! And the list goes on…
Only the mayor of Rennes, in a difficult position after this first round, refused any compromise, risking paying a high price next Sunday for her loyalty to her values. As for Emmanuel Grégoire in Paris and Benoît Payan in Marseille, who had calculated their moves, their lead in votes allowed them to stand firm against LFI.
The calls from those who claim to be social democrats, like François Hollande, Raphaël Glucksmann, or Jérôme Guedj, to not make any agreements with LFI, were unable to prevent this socialist rush into the arms of the Mélenchonists. Especially since the first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, had in a way endorsed it in advance.
By stating, without a smile, a month ago that there would be no “national” agreement with France Insoumise, Faure left the door wide open for local alliances. Only those who were unwilling to listen could be surprised. In the eyes of the head of the PS, what are a few days of complicated media acrobatics worth, what are the insults and moral condemnations worth, compared to winning several major cities… and preserving his constituency of Seine-et-Marne where LFI could make him lose?
The reality is this: Mélenchon’s strategy of noise and fury once again worked perfectly. France Insoumise, which had skipped the previous municipal elections, is now guaranteed a solid local foothold, at least in major cities. Thanks to its many municipal councilors, starting in September, the Mélenchonist party will make a – inevitably grandiose – entrance into the Senate, which has so far been shielded from the invectives and brawls that regularly shake up the hemicycle of the National Assembly. In short, so far confined to national politics, reserving itself for the presidential and legislative elections, LFI is now kicking off its territorial anchoring with a bang. Could it eventually supplant the PS?
This is certainly the avowed goal of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who nurtures the age-old dream of any good Trotskyist: to eliminate the social-traitors. Will this “New Left”, as he already calls it, eventually replace the old social-democratic left, or what’s left of it? It’s not impossible. Certainly, political parties never truly die. But they can become insignificant parties, like the Radical Party, dominant under the Third Republic, now split between the Valoisian Radical party and the Radical Left party, which have long served as a supporting force with their few local dignitaries.
A new right/left divide between the RN and LFI could very well replace the one we knew before Macronism, emerging from the failures of the PS and the UMP, a divide between a national security right and a sectarian radical left. Just like the one between the RPR and the Communist Party, back when the all-powerful Gaullists proudly proclaimed, “Between the communists and us, there is nothing.”
Carole Barjon, Political Commentator
Fact Check:
- Carole Barjon is a political commentator.
- The article discusses the impact of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party in the municipal elections on the Socialist Party in France.
