will the left leave united in Avignon?
La France insoumise has started discussions with its possible allies, PS, EELV, PCF and NPA in view of the legislative elections of June 12 and 19. In Avignon, where Jean-Luc Mélenchon made good scores in the presidential election, the socialist mayor calls for the union of the left.
In the first round of the presidential election, theAvignonnais placed the candidate of France Insoumise in the lead. Jean-Luc Mélenchon achieved 36.87%, or 8.5 points more than five years ago, despite the presence of communist Fabien Roussel and ecologist Yannick Jadot. He is 17 points ahead of the president-candidate. Arrival 3rd Marine Le Pen only achieved 18.94% of the vote.
While in this department, one of the poorest in France, the RN has been on conquered land for years, the city of the Popes is resisting. The rebellious candidate succeeded in mobilizing voters in working-class neighborhoods.
In the commune, unemployment peaks at 17% and the poverty rate at 31%. “The vote for LFI is the result of field work that is not dated of yesterday”, believes its local leader, Farid Faryssy.
“Jean-Luc Mélenchon favored a useful vote from left-wing voters, but also managed to capture this popular vote in the so-called abstentionist neighborhoods. It is concrete and talks about the redistribution of wealth, minimum wage, hospitals, themes expected by people on the left”, explains socialist mayor Cécile Helle.
The elected official calls for a union of the left for the legislative elections at the departmental level as well as at the national level according to France Bleu Vaucluse. “He we must emphasize what brings us together and not what divides us,“ she declared to our colleagues.
Negotiations began on Wednesday in Paris between La France insoumise
and the Socialist Party. A meeting described as “positive” by the protagonists while at the same time the Mélenchonist camp has been conducting other bilateral discussions for more than a week with EELV, the PCF and the NPA.
No point of disagreement or blockage “insurmountable” according to the chief negotiator of LFI Manuel Bompard as from the point of view of the spokesman of the PS Pierre Jouvet.
Points of convergence which will perhaps lead to an agreement in the coming days. But nothing is less certain. Since the vote by its National Council, eight days ago, a desire to discuss with LFI for the legislative elections, the PS has been in the grip of tensions.
While on the left, we discuss the Republicans have already chosen their candidate for the first constituency of Vaucluse. LR has invested regional councilor Dominique Brogi.
Former stronghold of Marie-Josée Roig, the first constituency of Vaucluse was won in 2012 by the socialist Michèle Fournier-Armand in a duel with the National Front. In 2017, the left presented itself in dispersed order in Avignon. None of its representatives had been able to remain in the second round when the accumulation of its votes totaled 28%.
The LREM candidate Jean-François Césarini had won against the frontist Anne-Sophie Rigault. Following the death of the deputy, it is his deputy, Souad Zitouni, a 45-year-old lawyer who took over from him at the Palais Bourbon.