LIVE - LFI meeting at Le Bourget: “Down with the resignation of the beaten down!” chant Jean-Luc Mélenchon

The idea of ​​forming a broad coalition from Raphaël Glucksmann to David Lisnard before the presidential election, suggested by Emmanuel Macron, “discredits politics”, believes the Place publique/PS candidate, who does not believe that the left and the right are “soluble in each other”. The President of the Republic “would have done better to organize a great moment of national unity after the racist attack in Trappes rather than imagining such political schemes,” squeaks Raphaël Glucksmann in La Tribune Dimanche.

“Let’s be serious. How can I imagine for a second a merger between my project and that of David Lisnard?”, very marked on the right, “this discredits politics”, judges the candidate. “The idea that the left and the right are soluble in each other, I have never believed in it and I think that it is dangerous for democracy, it paves the way for demagogues and populists,” he adds.

Raphaël Glucksmann says he is “convinced on the contrary that the democratic alternative to the RN will be an offer of change compared to the double five-year term of Emmanuel Macron” and that “it is our left, democratic and republican, which will propose this alternative”. The Place publique/PS candidate also criticizes recent comments by Horizons candidate Édouard Philippe who spoke of an “over-representation” of youth “from immigration” in the looting of October 17.

“For my part, I have been French for two generations. Why then does Mr. Philippe not see in me a +French with an immigrant background+? The reality, and everyone understands it well, is that behind these words it is blacks and Arabs who are constantly targeted, as if they were condemned to always be 'from an immigrant background' after two, three, four or even five generations,” says Glucksmann. “There is such psychological domination of the far right in the public debate that we are no longer able to produce a common republican surge. The only way to win against the far right is not to follow them, it is to put up a barrier,” he assures.

Often criticized for having questioned the legitimacy of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky or denouncing the deep shooting of the Ukrainians, the Insoumis leader raised on Saturday the sensitive issue of Donbass, a region in eastern Ukraine largely occupied by the Russians.

“We do not accept that we are considering peace with territorial concessions in Ukraine, without asking the populations concerned if they agree to be on this side of the border or the other,” he declared. “Who has the right to know if they (the population) want to be Ukrainian or Russian?” he asked, while kyiv has so far officially refused any concession on Donbass.

In his speech, Jean-Luc Mélenchon repeated his movement's support for the Palestinians, whose "genocide" in Gaza he once again denounced, hammering home this term rejected by the Israelis and which other political leaders, including on the left, refuse to use. “We will act head-on to help the Palestinians, not only against the genocide in Gaza but against the progressive annexation of the West Bank,” he said.

“French ships, like those of Italy and Spain, if necessary, will escort the flotillas of citizens mobilized to assert the rights” of the Palestinians, he continued. “We do not accept the gradual annexation of the West Bank, nor of South Lebanon, nor of the Golan Heights. And we will concretely organize the mobilization against the extension of cruelties to besieged and persecuted Christian communities in Palestine and Lebanon,” he added.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon spoke about the artificial intelligence revolution. “The AI ​​investment bubble is already bursting as we speak. All this will collapse the international financial system. During this crisis, and now, the citadels must be dismantled. All the citadels of this rotten system!”

“And during this time… And during this time, what are the right-wingers proposing? Well, as they have no other ideas than those, in general, of the portfolio parties, they propose the repetition of liberal recipes which have already put the whole country in impasse and anger. And with that, the lesson-givers, who came to the previous presidential election with a frightened face, looking at me and scolding me: “You are going to create a 100 billion deficit!” They made 1,200 billion and no one saw the color of it.

Suffering from the spirit of defeat. “The struggle pays! Orbán was defeated in Hungary! Vučić was beaten in Serbia! Trump was defeated in the United States of America. Bolsonaro was defeated in Brazil! Long live Lula!”, launched Jean-Luc Mélenchon from his meeting at Le Bourget (Seine-Saint-Denis). “Our turn to change History! (…) Down with the resignation of the defeated in advance!” Progressing in the polls, Jean-Luc Mélenchon is announced possibly in the second round. On the other hand, he is largely beaten in all cases, against Edouard Philippe as against Marine Le Pen.

“According to their crystal ball, we would be beaten in advance in the second round,” he added later in his speech. “Yes, that’s what we told Lula too. We end up wondering if this argument is not a pretext for not helping us not to achieve the best possible score in the first round. Jean-Luc Mélenchon then talked about 2022 and his small gap with Marine Le Pen on the evening of the first round. “Do what you want, but we will fight until the last second and in the end, we will win!”

Also read 2027 Presidential Election: more assured than ever of being in the second round, Mélenchon further widens the gap with Philippe, according to a survey

The National Council (parliament) of the Communist Party announced on Saturday that any member who supported a candidate other than the leader of the movement Fabien Roussel would put themselves “outside the party”. This decision targets the four communist deputies, including their leader Stéphane Peu, who announced on Friday supporting the candidacy of the leader of La France insoumise Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

In addition to the communist deputies (Stéphane Peu, Nicolas Sansu, Elsa Faucillon and Soumya Bourouaha), five overseas elected officials had announced their support for Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“Out of respect for the democratic life of our party”, every member “must respect the majority choice”, believes the communist body in a press release.

At the beginning of September, PCF activists voted 72% to support the candidacy for the Elysée of the party's national secretary Fabien Roussel, who had been reappointed in July.

If the French had to choose between “the extreme right” of Marine Le Pen and “the radical left”, “we would have both for the long term”, warned Édouard Philippe on Saturday, who attacked the “communitarian vision” and “the administered economy” of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

“Today, the presidential election is a progressive polarization” between “the candidate of the extreme right and the candidates of the radical left”, where “everyone who is perceived as being in the middle is required to have to choose between order and chaos”, explained the Horizons candidate during a public meeting in La Ciotat (Bouches-du-Rhône).

But “a France in which we would have to choose between the extreme right and the radical left is a France in which we would have both and in the long term,” he warned.

In this RN-LFI “opposition”, Édouard Philippe explained that he saw “many points in common”, notably “a detestation of European construction” and the desire to “leave NATO”.

The former Prime Minister then attacked Mr. Mélenchon, who presents his program on Saturday. “I don’t know if I want a new France” because “I believe deeply in republican universalism,” he said, accusing the rebellious candidate of holding “positions that are based on a communitarian vision of things.”

The program of La France insoumise “is not a project to straighten out the country” but a “project to dismantle France”, accused Marine Le Pen on Saturday on X, after the publication of an updated version of Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s project.

“The La France insoumise program is not a project to restore the country. It is a project to dismantle France. He pushes the logic of deconstruction initiated by Emmanuel Macron since his arrival to power to its conclusion,” affirms the candidate of the National Rally, seeing a continuity between the action of the former President of the Republic and the project of the radical left.

Marine Le Pen points to an “accumulation of dangerous measures”, from the “reestablishment of full land rights, including in Mayotte” to the “dismantling of the BAC and (the) disarmament of municipal police”, including a “policy of degrowth” and the “progressive closure of our nuclear power plants”.

This “project which disarms, which renounces, which fails and which divides (...) does not prepare the future of France: it organizes its weakening and its erasure”, asserts the far-right candidate.

After Clermont-Ferrand last month and before Le Havre next month, La France insoumise is returning this weekend to the Paris region, where it is most established, with this meeting at the Bourget exhibition center, in Seine-Saint-Denis. On Friday, 17,000 activists were registered for this event. Up to 20,000 people expected in total.

On Saturday, with this meeting, “we have three objectives: demonstrating the strength and dynamics of our campaign, showcasing our team and presenting our program,” explains LFI coordinator and campaign director, Manuel Bompard, to AFP.

Because this event follows the release in bookstores on Friday of the presidential program of the Insoumis, the new version of “The Future in Common”, with 1069 proposals.

And the radical left movement, always keen on technological innovations, intends to show in an original way what their applied program would look like.

“We will broadcast a short film, between fiction and reality, with passages between stage and screen, to show how L’Avenir en commune will change people’s lives,” Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s entourage told AFP.