In Avignon, Mélenchonist activists represent hope
In her house near the ramparts, extra-muros, Mireille Créa, 68, gives herself up with emotion. His disappointment first, since his candidate Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who met in the first round nearly 22% of the votes, on April 10 is eliminated. His comfort too, because the working-class neighborhoods supported him en masse. Daughter of Calabrian immigrants settled in the Cévennes, this former national education trainer, specialist in school dropouts, was a long-time activist in the Communist Party, before joining La France insoumise (LFI) when it was created in 2016.
What she likes about the tribune of the People’s Union (UP), her campaign movement? His defense of the social. The idea that “another world is possible”, the slogan of his posters. Its projects of ecological bifurcation and renewal of institutions, with the Sixth Republic. But also horizontality and freedom of movement, which is not a party where people are encarte.
“Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with his global vision, remobilizes a people who will regain control”, approves of the one who locally leads the campaign’s social network, Popular Action, and coordinates one of the city’s five action groups. Sympathizing, his daughter Aurélie, 38, an unemployed speech therapist, appreciates the program called the Future in common. Far left, “revolted by the repugnant inequalities, the violence against the working classes”, she shares the anger of candidate Mélenchon and keeps the bitter taste of police abuse against “yellow vests”. So, voter Le Pen or even Macron on April 24? Impossible.
An exception in a navy blue department
Knighted in the papal city! On April 10, Jean-Luc Mélenchon came out on top in Avignon, with nearly 37% of the vote, ahead of Emmanuel Macron (20.42%) and Marine Le Pen (18.94%). In a department where the candidate of the National Rally (RN) placed first, with 29.43% of the vote, ahead of the outgoing President (22.01%), then the candidate of the Popular Union (20.75% ). Therefore, Avignon, managed since 2014 by Cécile Helle, socialist, is an exception in a brown or navy blue department, with a high unemployment rate (17%).
The prefecture of Vaucluse acclaimed, first in its sensitive neighborhoods located outside the city walls, the rebellious candidate: he ranked first in 52 offices out of 71. From Montfavet to Saint-Chamand, from Monfleury to Monclard, he often won more than 70% of the votes, and up to 77% at La Rocade. His associates towed there tirelessly, and went door-to-door.
Lawyer Farid Faryssy, 43, takes us on board his Golf, between posters and pots of glue (“an activist’s car!”), to survey these cities without social mix, with decrepit buildings, blackened facades, sometimes bearing the impact of firearms, mosques and teeming markets, during this period of Ramadan. Neighborhoods often plagued by drug trafficking. “Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s score here proves that people are breaking the slab, and it’s terrible. Avignon is one of the poorest cities in France. But, here, the creolization that he boasts has started”, remarks the lawyer.
“Benevolence is a principle”
In his office, held with his younger sister, the lawyer born in Morocco, like his candidate with a Mediterranean temperament, is pleased that the candidate LFI has obtained such success, in areas where abstention or the vote for the majority usually dominates. far right. In the second round, he thinks people will not vote for Marine Le Pen, who plan to impose fines on veiled women. So in Carpentras, would his mother be penalized? The idea revolts him.
According to him, the inhabitants of the neighborhoods, mostly from the Maghreb, arrived yesterday to work in the market gardening, like his father, 78, will not go to the polls in the second round. No more than LFI activists (about 350 in the department). Or else they will vote blank. On the other hand, former “yellow vests”, the first to have castigated the loss of purchasing power in 2018, and whom he defended (gracefully), wrote to him that they would vote for Marine Le Pen.
What does Farid Faryssy like in the program the Future in common, he who was LFI candidate for the municipal elections of 2020 (5.6% of the vote), and will present himself in June for the legislative elections under this label? The ecological dimension. The ambition to get out of capitalism, nuclear power and NATO command, to become a non-aligned country. The project of equality and true secularism. “Benevolence is a principle”, he believes.
“Third in the first round, first in the third round? »
Here, the movement also appeals to young people. On the terrace of a café, five members of the action group Les Jeunes Insoumis d’Avignon (60 in total) present the ideas that are dear to them. High school student, Ilyès Khaizourane, 17, is very invested, even before being able to vote. Mathilde Caillet, 32, a bakery saleswoman, will lead the constituency in the June legislative elections, along with Farid Faryssy.
Bruce Borde, 33, a raw earth mason, has been a faithful Jean-Luc Mélenchon since 2008. Vincent Gauthier, 37, a solar panel installer, has been campaigning on his behalf for five years. Sébastien Landry, 20, a law student from Beaucaire, in the hands of the RN, has been at LFI for two years. For them, hope already outweighs disillusion. Since April 10, sad and stimulating at the same time, nine young people have asked them to join their action group. They hope that their movement will be a hit in the June legislative elections. “Third in the first round, and first in the third round, why not? », Bruce ignites.
“The Vaucluse is a rural department with strong inequalities, and a lot of second homes. Accommodation here is complicated,” emphasizes Vincent. Even if Avignon has 35% social housing, unlike the surrounding municipalities. From Mélenchon, they love solidarity with the most vulnerable and minorities. The desire to solve the problem of representativeness of elected officials, to modify the distribution of wealth, to raise the minimum wage to €1,400, to prone “everyone’s love” opposite of “uninhibited racism”, to fight against “violence against women”.
“Voter Le Pen, it’s no! »
Everyone loves the strong personality of the former socialist senator, even his outbursts. But regrets his bad image, conveyed by the media. They deplore Fabien Roussel’s option of not having joined their candidate, while the PCF had given up his candidacy for his benefit in 2012 and 2017. Here, the posters of one have often covered those of the other, when they weren’t bulging with Zemmour’s furious Z.
“Angry not fachos”, they are angry with Emmanuel Macron for “not having listened to the people” during the health crisis, and for having pursued a liberal policy. They will go “vote by constraint, to at least avoid the worst”, notes Ilyes. “Le Pen and Macron flirt with us. But they are both very right wing,” remark Vincent. “We don’t know who is worse,” loose Sébastien, while Mathilde corrects: “We still have an anti-fascist base: voting for Le Pen means no! »
In the City of the Popes and its maze of lively alleys, the melenchonists, for lack of means, do not allow premises. Within the walls, they sometimes meet at Le Citron Pressé, a restaurant decorated with photos of Latin America. A passionate activist, Patricia Schrepel, 58, has been running this simple but tasty table for more than 30 years, with Gégé, her companion. In this ” place of life “, Makeshift headquarters of the Union Populaire, tongues are loosened. A pensioner is surprised that “the sagacious turtle”, the self-nickname of Mélenchon, has almost held its bet to beat the hare Le Pen, with 22% of the votes.
A CFDT activist, who first resolved to vote Hidalgo, plans to give his ballot to the RN. In the hope of obtaining a salutary electroshock. With her values at the antipodes, Patricia launches: ” That’s a very bad idea ! » Here, the activists, including Patricia and Ilyès, cried on the evening of April 10. Subscriber to the diplomatic World, she likes the alterglobalist posts of her candidate, “not pro-Putin, not aligned with the Americans, but favorable to peace”. Retirement at age 60 or an autonomy allowance for students, which “would prevent parents from bleeding themselves”. “Mélenchon is a humanist, a feminist, a socialist, an ecologist, who has evolved in his political thinking, and has had us evaluated with him”, she notes.
angry activists
Thursday, April 14, Avignon was bubbling. At the Parc des expositions, away from the center near the airport, Marine Le Pen awarded a large campaign meeting, in front of 4,000 excited supporters, blue-white-red flag in hand. The opportunity for the RN candidate, alone on stage in her red jacket, eager to“inspirer of other gatherings”, of “Reaching out fraternally to all French people”. Compatriots who should not “to let their vote be dictated”, allusion to Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s instruction not to give him a single voice. Or that of the tenant of the Élysée of ” to block ” on the extreme right, when she herself proposes “blocking Macron”. A meeting to castigate “a system that has lived and a caste in the woods”, promising, nods to rebellious voters, more than ” social justice “. But also a “immigration control” and “a great politics of the countryside”.
At the same time, from the town hall to Place Pie, 300 rebellious and anti-fascist activists marched, opposed to the presence of the far-right candidate in their city. Among them, all the activists met, including those of the action group 13-30-84 (the neighboring departments), led by Elvira Cerezo, a 68-year-old graphic designer, seen shortly before in a café. Baya Lazreg, 49, Huberte Lenormand, 67, Pierre-Yvon Dalino, 73, and Lise Lavallée, retired and pastor. Activists angry with Marine Le Pen, Fabien Roussel and Emmanuel Macron, after his laws deemed draconian and “Five years of horror and violence”.
“Neither for plague nor for cholera”
Hungry for social justice, opposed to government spending on consulting firms, supporters of price freezes and preservation of public services, especially health and education. In favor of ecological bifurcation and the advent of a Sixth Republic. Annoyed and furious. But happy with the collaborative development of a real program, the investment of young people, the refoundation of the left already underway.
They determined not to opt, on April 24, “neither for plague nor for cholera”: most will abstain or vote blank. In front of her comrades who suggest the possibility of voting for Le Pen, Lise expresses her disagreement. “I’m ending my life with what I didn’t want, she says. But I console myself when I find my militant friends. We are a force in action. »