In Caen, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Olivier Faure challenge Elisabeth Borne on her land – Liberation
The rebellious leader and the first secretary of the PS held a joint meeting this Wednesday evening in Calvados, even as the Prime Minister was in public meeting in the department. Anything but a coincidence.
“Please, can I come in?” I have friends who have reserved a place for me inside…” This Wednesday evening, we have the impression that the Caen convention center has turned into a nightclub. In front of the door held by two big fellows dressed all in black, people negotiate to enter the lobby of the place, which is already full to bursting. Some try to pity the doormen to make their way. “I’ve been waiting for more than an hour and I’ve never had the opportunity to see Jean-Luc Mélenchon in person., tent, for example, a young man, pins of the Nupes hung on the T-shirt. Others ask for help from their friends who have been able to return. But the two golgoths do not flinch and answer, a bit embarrassed, “it’s not possible” like nightclub bouncers. History that it is very clear, the organizers come regularly that there is not any more a single place available. Those best placed in the queue, which stretches over several hundred meters, could follow the speech on a screen.
After Metz, Villeurbanne, Sainte-Geneviève-des-Bois, or Paris, Jean-Luc Mélenchon therefore continues his campaign tour, this Wednesday evening, in Caen. The place is obviously not chosen at random. The rebellious leader who dreams of being Prime Minister chases the current head of government, Elisabeth Borne, whom he intends to replace, directly on his land. It is here, in Calvados, that the tenant of Matignon is in the running for the legislative control of June 12 and 19. In the 6th district precisely, which extends over 186 municipalities in the south-west of the department. Moreover, barely on stage, the first words of the third man of the last presidential election go to his competitor: “I said to myself that if I come, maybe she will do the nice gesture, she who does not want to discuss with me”.
On the other side of the duel
But before Jean-Luc Mélenchon, another leader of the left was invited to speak: the First Secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure. Like the candidates of the department, presented a few moments earlier, the deputy of Seine-et-Marne also entitled to his standing ovation. A welcome still unexpected a few weeks ago, especially in a room populated by a majority of rebels. Only here, Faure was one of the great craftsmen of the union of the left, ignoring the criticisms of the elephants of the PS. “It was for him that it was the hardest to sign the agreement, not for us”, says Mélenchon as a tribute. While waiting for the arrival of the rebellious leader, the socialist speaks of the value of work. The opportunity to list the main programmatic points of Nupes such as retirement at age 60 or the increase in the minimum wage to 1,500 euros.
“I had been warned that he ate children and I was afraid”
Then, after several tens of minutes of speech, comes the moment, for the socialist, to go get Jean-Luc Mélenchon. But before that, a few jokes. “I will leave the floor to Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who gives me his word with good grace, because he is said to be authoritarian. I admit that I thought so too, at first. I had been warned that he ate children and I was scared”, Badine Faure. But today everything is fine, “we realized that we speak the same language”continues the socialist.
That’s why the two men have no problem standing side by side on the steps of the grand staircase that overlooks the hall. Before going on stage, Jean-Luc Mélenchon made a point of addressing the people who could not enter the room. People still massed outside stick to the windows to try to photograph the rebellious. The most agile climb on the windowsills with an unobstructed view of the tribune, even from the outside.
Microphone in hand, Mélenchon focuses the first half of his speech on the mobilization of his troops for Sunday. The objective: to affirm that a victory is possible and that he has a chance of landing at Matignon. “There is a third round, a real third round”hammers the rebellious listing the polls which give the Nupes in the lead in the first round by a short head in front of the presidential majority. “And even in the polls where they are a little ahead of us, they don’t have an absolute majority so you might as well vote for us”, jokes Mélenchon. Without ever quoting him, the rebellious tackles Emmanuel Macron, this president who, according to him, would be able to put a Prime Minister on his side even in the event of a victory for Nupes. An allusion to the interview with the Head of State in the Parisian in which it was asserted “that no political party can impose a name on the president”. “It is true that in the Constitution it is not written that one must be named Jean-Luc Mélenchon […] but this choice will concern us”continues Mélenchon.
8:45 p.m., Jean-Luc Mélenchon finally goes to the room. Unsurprisingly, the tribune was welcomed like a rock star to long, hearty applause. Once the public is attentive, the rebellious immediately evokes the one whose place he dreams of taking at Matignon: Elisabeth Borne. “One of the most sinister figures of technocracy”according to him. “This lady, we know her, is suing the former presidential candidate. When she was chief of staff, it was she who signed the extension of motorway concessions to the private sector, when she was at the SNCF, it was she who took care of opening it up to competition, ditto at the RATP, at the Ministry of Ecology, it was she who postponed the end of the use of single-use plastics…”. And come to a very simple conclusion: “let her go”.