Primary of the left: the candidates clash over the future of the party against the RN and Macron

Why do primary candidates want to represent the social democratic camp? “After ten years of macronism and its illusions and in the face of the perils of the RN, I offer you a path of courage to respond to the needs for dignity expressed by the French”, regarding purchasing power, salaries and pensions, and tax justice, said Jérôme Guedj, who is opposed to “the possibility of alliance with rebellious France” promoted by Olivier Faure.

An Olivier Faure who calls for “the coming together of the left”, from environmentalists to trade unionists, against the “at the same time” Macronist “who gave the opportunity to the extreme right to present itself as the exclusive alternative.”

In a France “in a state of chaos, fracture and decline”, Ségolène Royal promotes her future presidency, that of “a sense of order and justice”. Building on her background, she wants to put her “experience at the service of my country”. To do this, the former finalist in the 2007 presidential election promises to “trigger a movement that can carry the left and then expand between the two rounds”.

Raphaël Glucksmann finds that “we all feel bad seeing the state of our country”. “When we realize to what extent the voice of France is no longer listened to, we have the impression of being faced with a country that is falling. that’s not France. We must and we will raise our heads,” said the co-founder of Place publique.

Emmanuel Maurel is running as a candidate “because he wants to serve France and the French. Our country is damaged. It is also undermined by territorial social divides between generations.” His goal? “Repair the country” and “recreate something common”.

Sunday guest of the “Grand Oral BFMTV-Le Figaro”, Dominique de Villepin rushed into the breach opened by Mediapart, which since the beginning of last week has attributed to Jordan Bardella, in a two-part investigation, anti-Semitic writings dating from 2013. Which the person concerned denies outright.

The RN may have been engaged in “normalization” and “de-demonization” work for around fifteen years, but the enterprise remains, in the eyes of Dominique de Villepin, far from being completed. “It will take many years, time and proof for this reality to become accepted by everyone,” believes the septuagenarian. Should Jordan Bardella resign, according to him, when Marine Le Pen has just renewed her “total confidence” in him?

“Personal responsibility is one thing; the problem is that of a party which inherits a tradition, it is a problem of the system, not of the person,” evades the former head of diplomacy. Before adding: “If we launch the witch hunt in the RN, we will not end it. »

Also read Bardella affair: “A system problem, not a person”, Dominique de Villepin charges the National Rally

The Minister of the Economy, Roland Lescure, affirmed that the effort requested from companies as part of the 2027 draft budget reached around 10 billion euros, or half less than the amount put forward by Medef, in an interview with La Tribune Dimanche. “The sum put forward by Medef of 20 billion euros is inaccurate. The effort requested from companies is of the order of 10 billion, including a reduction to 5 billion euros in surtax in the context of corporate tax and a contribution for large maritime freight companies,” indicated Mr. Lescure two days after the government presented its draft budget for 2027.

The leading employers' organization, Medef estimated Thursday at "nearly 20 billion euros" the levies and taxes affecting businesses in the draft budget, judging "that further weakening businesses means weakening the country."

The French Business Movement (Medef) denounced “the multiplication of taxes” on different sectors included in the government project: on highways, sweet processed products, maritime transport, automobile insurance agreements or complementary health insurance.

Between the rooms and the technical means, the costs of organizing a meeting for this presidential election have significantly increased due to inflation, forcing candidates to adapt, or even reduce the size of this type of event. Faced with these rising prices for the entire event part, one of the most important expenditure items in the electoral campaign, certain candidates are once again calling into question the ceiling, set since 2009 at 16.851 million euros in the first round and 22.509 million in the second.

Éric Zemmour, who is preparing to embark on the race for the Élysée for the second time, has already planned to hold fewer public meetings than in 2022, he who had nevertheless been one of the only ones, with Jean-Luc Mélenchon at the time, to carry out impressive demonstrations of militant force. Officially, it was “very and too demanding” according to those around him, but in reality there was also a financial question, for him as for the other suitors.

INFLATION CONSTRAINTS MEETINGS

The day after Mediapart's new charge against Jordan Bardella, this close friend of Marine Le Pen, member of the campaign management, does not flinch. He feels very good. “Nothing has changed for me. I am absolutely not convinced by what Mediapart brings. Their evidence is not convincing. So, now we are campaigning and talking to the French,” he says, absolutely imperturbable. The man goes even further by saying: “Frankly, everything is fine. » And says she only thinks about one thing: the meeting on October 6, when Marine Le Pen will detail the 125 billion euros in savings she intends to make.

This is the atmosphere that reigns among the strategists of Marine Le Pen's presidential campaign, less than twenty-four hours after the last Mediapart article on the anti-Semitic remarks allegedly written, in 2013, by Jordan Bardella, then aged 17 or 18 and a simple National Front activist. In this new article, published Thursday at 6 p.m., the online newspaper presented its “evidence”. He publishes screenshots of messages allegedly sent by Jordan Bardella to another person on the Messenger platform. The interlocutor of the president of the RN asked Meta for a download of this conversation, the extraction of which was authenticated by a bailiff, according to Mediapart. And then there are the biographical elements proving according to the media that the author of the messages was indeed Jordan Bardella: a mother born in Italy, the mention of an interview he gave to Le Parisien in 2013 or even the failure in the Sciences Po competition.

FACED WITH ACCUSATIONS, THE RN STANDS UP

On the eve of the last televised debate of the primary candidates, two extracts of remarks made by Raphaël Glucksmann, intended to remain private, were broadcast by Le Media, an online support close to the radical left. The latter is alongside the leader of the socialist deputies Boris Vallaud and seems to be discussing with activists.

In a first extract, the MEP debriefs the Medef debate at the end of August, in which he participated with six other presidential candidates, including Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Marine Le Pen. We hear him say that “on economic issues”, the two candidates “were mega on the hook”. “I saw Mélenchon with his eyes lost, in this debate,” he insists. “What happened behind?” he continues. “Le Pen brought back (the subject of the) veil” into the political debate. “And he (Jean-Luc Mélenchon, editor’s note), he put the abaya back on. They reacted in symmetry. We piss on them, we’re not going to get in there,” he gets angry.

In a second video, the MEP attacks his competitor in the left-wing primary, Ségolène Royal, accusing her of having done “belly dancing to Macron” in recent years while he has been “seven and a half years in the European Parliament”.

Both parties reacted strongly. Jean-Luc Mélenchon was surprised on X by this video where “R. Glucksmann claims he is “pissing on me”. Not long ago, he announced that he was going to “bend” me,” he remarks. “We see how he adopts the “method of nuance” that he recommends and the “refusal of the brutalization of the debate” that he proclaims,” he says.

For her part, Ségolène Royal deplored on

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“I’m going to be elected tonight. You’re going to find out at 8 p.m., but I’m warning you,” François Hollande confided to his father a few minutes before the official announcement of his victory in the presidential election in 2012. “I pity you all the same!”, immediately blurted out Georges Hollande, who was from a completely different political side “to the right of the right”. From this point of view he had made “a good prophecy”, laughs the former President of the Republic. For him, “acting was not in vain, but painful.”

For 52 minutes, the former head of state answers questions from Vincent Trémolet de Villers, on the new Empreintes Youtube channel. He returns to the driving forces behind his political ambition and what built him as a man. The country of his childhood? “We lived in Rouen, in my father’s medical office. The bed in which I lay in the evening was the bed on which he operated on his patients,” recalls François Hollande, before adding with amusement: “When he had time, he operated on me and my brother to get the hang of it…”.