Seven months before the presidential election, the candidates are trying to take advantage of the high school mobilization to target their opponents: center, right and far right are firing on LFI, accused of fueling violence. The left denounces “the irresponsibility of the government” in its political and police response.
Faced with the increasing violence observed since the start of the week, the culprit for the government camp is obvious: the LFI elected officials, accused on Monday by Sébastien Lecornu of maintaining an “irresponsible one-upmanship” by calling for the movement to “expand”.
On Thursday, the tone went up a notch: Renaissance candidate Gabriel Attal asked the Rebels “to stop using young people as cannon fodder” to send them “to put themselves in danger and to endanger other people, law enforcement, national education personnel”.
“The cynical exploitation of high school students by LFI and the political forces who want to create conflict is scandalous. Everything can go wrong very quickly. And any drama would inevitably be exploited by those who have an interest in confrontation,” added his Horizons presidential competitor Édouard Philippe.
Further to the right, the angle of attack is the same. “By sending his deputies to the establishments, Jean-Luc Mélenchon bears a heavy responsibility for the situation our country is experiencing today,” thundered Marine Le Pen on X.
LR candidate Bruno Retailleau would even like to study “the banning of LFI, a party which is fascinated by violence, which calls for sedition and even which tries to organize insurrection”.
Presidential candidate Édouard Philippe (Horizons) explained on Thursday that he feared the “strangulation” that public debt could create on the French economy and the risk of an “external shock” which would “destabilize the system” and “create a financial crisis”.
While the government presents its draft budget for 2027 to the Council of Ministers, the candidate said on LCI that he feared “two things that are serious”. “The first risk is strangulation, it is the debt which continues to increase, the interest rates which continue to rise, the total absence of room for maneuver,” detailed the mayor of Le Havre. “And then there is something which is almost worse than that, it is that plus a shock, an external shock, a political instability, something which destabilizes the system and which can, there, create a financial crisis”, he worried.
“We have a party that is fascinated by violence, we have a party that calls for sedition, and even, we have a party that tries to organize insurrection,” declared Bruno Retailleau this Thursday morning. “What is happening today in front of high schools is a dress rehearsal for what could happen in 2027 if Madame Le Pen won, they would organize an insurrection in the country.”
About La France insoumise, which supports the high school mobilization, he added: “I think today that a question arises: it is the question of the ban on LFI. I know that it is very difficult in law, but I am asking it, I am launching it into the public debate because we can no longer act as if nothing had happened, it is no longer possible.
“There is a legal framework that exists in the Internal Security Code, (…) a certain number of conditions are required, are these conditions met?” Bruno Retailleau also cited the fact of “standing in solidarity with the Young Guard, calling for insurrection, calling into question our institutions, putting a target on the backs of our gendarmes and our police officers”, before calling on the left “at its most republican” to “dissociate itself in the clearest way”.
Edwige Diaz brought her “support” and “friendship” to Jordan Bardella this Thursday morning on RTL, after the publication by Mediapart of anti-Semitic messages attributed to him and which he contests. “I have no doubt about the integrity of Jordan Bardella,” assured Senator RN, denouncing an “attempted political assassination”. “We will not let this happen,” she added.
Asked immediately about the possible impact of this affair on the collection of sponsorships for the presidential election, for which she is responsible at the RN, Edwige Diaz especially insisted on the urgency of the matter: “It’s a real subject”. “Today we have around 400 sponsorships,” she said. “We need a small margin of safety, we need to obtain these sponsorship promises quickly to move on,” she continued, launching an appeal to the mayors of France.
The five candidates in the primary of the social democratic left meet Thursday evening for a second televised debate, which should once again highlight their division on the question of a possible alliance with LFI.
After a first debate on LCI a week ago, the MEP for Place publique Raphaël Glucksmann, the boss of the PS Olivier Faure, the former candidate for the 2007 presidential election Ségolène Royal, the PS deputy Jérôme Guedj and that of the Republican and Socialist Left (GRS) Emmanuel Maurel will clash once again, on France 2 and France inter, from 8:45 p.m., for two hours of debate.
One of the five will be designated by the activists, on October 9-10 and 16-17, candidate of the social democratic left for the presidential election.
