Former spokesperson for Jean-Luc Mélenchon during the 2017 campaign, Georges Kuzamnovic is president of the Sovereign Republic party.
LE FIGARO. - The new management of LFI, which will be inducted in a few days, has ousted several heavyweights of La France insoumise, from Clémentine Autain to François Ruffin, via Alexis Corbière. Leïla Chaibi, the patron saint of the rebellious in the European Parliament evoked an "almost a purge" in Le Monde. Do you share his observation?
Georges KUZMANOVIC. -
I find Leïla Chaibi's reaction comical because there is nothing new.
Purges have already taken place.
When I left rebellious France in 2018, it was in this context.
At the time, François Cocq, former national speaker was also a victim, as was Charlotte Girard, former program manager and wife of the late François Delapierre who was, in a way, the spiritual son of Jean-Luc Mélenchon on the Politics.
The rebels who are sorry today for a "purge" found nothing to complain about when, in the name of the left's unity strategy, others were arbitrarily excluded from the movement.
Nothing new under the sun then.
The same mechanism is put in place as after the presidential election of 2017. At that time, it was deemed appropriate to eliminate the "sovereign" and "populist" current from the movement with a view to a union of the left.
This time again, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has probably established a strategy with his very close guard, which remains unchanged and consists in particular of deputies Gabriel Amard, Manuel Bompard and Bastien Lachaud.
Mélenchon trained them politically.
The leader of LFI thus applies the techniques of one of his mentors, the Trotskyist leader Pierre Lambert.
According to him, the slightest prank must be followed by an immediate sanction.
This means trusting only people you've known for a long time.
How to interpret the appointment of Manuel Bompard to the direction of La France insoumise?
After having been campaign director and head of LFI before being replaced by Adrien Quatennens, this is the logical next step.
This appointment is in line with the positioning defended by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and the latter thus shows that he holds the device well.
The appointment of Manuel Bompard should allow Mélenchon to keep control of his movement, he will no doubt have to apply the instructions given by the presidential candidate to the letter.
In view of the dictatorial functioning of this movement, one can legitimately wonder about the way France would be governed if it came to power.
George Kuzmanovic
On the scale of France, the Insoumis plead for more direct democracy. Is there a gap between this national ambition and the internal governance of the movement?
When I left the movement four years ago, I had already underlined this paradox.
Moreover, I had left an organization from which they wanted to exclude me without knowing what I was leaving since this organization does not really exist.
La France insoumise is not a political party, it is only a funding association.
There is no status to join.
So, when some call for "internal debates", that makes me laugh gently... Admittedly, political parties are not paragons of democracy, but whether it's Les Républicains or the Socialist Party, which have experienced many setbacks in internally, there are nevertheless statutes, authorities, people who are in political offices, national councils which allow a form of internal democracy.
This does
In view of the dictatorial functioning of this movement, one can legitimately wonder about the way France would be governed if it came to power.
In this context, talking about setting up a
“Sixth Republic”
is a farce.
There is a complete disconnect between what is promoted politically and what is done internally.
Does the eviction of François Ruffin seal the definitive abandonment of the line of 2017 - a transversal line combining socialism, patriotism and republicanism - to take up the referents of cultural leftism?
Yes, it's a confirmation.
As early as November 2018, I explained in a column published on the
Marianne
site that the abandonment of the populist line in favor of a so-called societal line was an error by Mélenchon.
François Ruffin moreover embodies this populist current much more concretely than Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The former presidential candidate is an exceptional political personality, a great orator, brilliant in the campaign, but he carries with him the fact of having spent decades in the Socialist Party, whether as a senator, a European deputy , deputy in the National Assembly or minister under Jospin.
Conversely, François Ruffin comes from the Somme, the peripheral France that Christophe Guilluy talks about in his books and he speaks to this electorate.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon's positions may have a certain success with a certain bourgeois left of the beautiful Parisian districts, but they will not be able to reconcile the left with the popular categories.
George Kuzmanovic
Mélenchon has chosen for some time to put aside subjects such as security or immigration or to suggest that the police are barbarians.
These very clear-cut positions may have some success with a certain bourgeois left in the upscale Parisian districts, but they will not be able to reconcile the left with the working classes.
Let's be honest, however: Rufin, who embodied this populist line, has always been a little aloof from LFI, moreover on his Twitter account he has always presented himself as "deputy Picardy standing" and not La France insoumise.
The eviction of Clémentine Autain from the management does not follow the same logic.
She has an ideological line similar to that defended today by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, but she has been manifesting her personal ambition for a long time.
If she poses no real threat to the leader of the movement - unlike Ruffin - her statements have certainly prompted LFI to dismiss her.