“This time around, we're not just going to get a good score. We want to win in order to install a Sixth Republic: there is an emergency, ”said Jean-Louis, 62, in the overheated parking lot of the Palais des Congrès in Valence, where four days took place during the summer university of Insubordinate, closed this Sunday. Like this Landais, the Crusader militants display their fighting spirit.
For them, the current crisis validates all the orientations of the movement. Indifferent to those who describe him at the bottom of the wave, they continue to see Jean-Luc Mélenchon, 69, an anchor and their natural candidate. The latter said this Sunday, after a speech of almost two hours, that he would announce in October his decision to run or not for the presidential election of 2022.
READ ALSO> Jean-Luc Mélenchon already has everything of a candidate
"I'm not a groupie," warns Gaël, 28, a forester in Puy-de-Dôme. When he launched La République, c'est moi ( during the search of the LFI headquarters in 2018, Editor's note ), I know that it was badly received by part of the population and that it hurt our message. The most important thing is our program L'Avenir en commun, which is solid. Now, we are in the Fifth Republic, and to wear it, you need someone with charisma. Mélenchon has it! He is brilliant ”.
"He's a country beast"
Others are almost surprised to be asked the question. "Mélenchon? He is the leader, he has the stature, summarizes Ariane, 67, who lives near Grenoble (Isère). It is portrayed as a character because it represents a danger for the system in place. For Hugo, 19, an activist from Marseille, there is not a shadow of a doubt. “He is the only one who supports the people on a daily basis by being present in all social struggles, from pickets to yellow vests. The only one who has such tenacity. This will undoubtedly be his last presidential election. It will be necessary to be in combat on the ground. Anyway, LFI has not stopped campaigning since 2017. "
A sympathetic LFI who also came from Marseille, Valentin stresses that more than the intermediate elections, the presidential election is made for Mélenchon. "It is a beast of the countryside," he greets. No one has their capacity to be able to speak to both the middle class and the popular electorate while transmitting emotion. It embodies both exaggeration and a form of wisdom. With the crisis born of the Covid, the ground is there to make his ideas prosper. For Brigitte, a 65-year-old teacher from Burgundy, “it represents the last chance to restore power to the people democratically”.
"The Greens stir a lot of wind, like wind turbines"
There remains the question of strategy. While environmentalists have the wind in their sails since the municipal elections, possible alliances on the left arouse great mistrust among the rebels, when it is not rejection. “I don't believe it, loose Gaël. I do not want to make concessions on Europe, on the taxation of the richest. And on ecology, we hold the road, so the Greens finally stir a lot of wind, like wind turbines ”.
Political Newsletter
Every day, political news seen by Le ParisienI'm registering
Your email address is collected by Le Parisien to enable you to receive our news and commercial offers. Learn more
Hugo is on the same hard line, believing that LFI is at the center of the game. “An alliance with the PS, Generation. s (the party of Benoît Hamon) or the ecologists, it is not conceivable because they are liberal people, people of the system. I am convinced that rebellious France is the only Left Party in France. "Anyway, predicted Valentin," Mélenchon will only accept the union if it is behind him.