The French left-wing formation La Francia Insumisa published late this past Friday a controversial list of 230 candidates for the early legislative elections that leaves out such prominent — and discordant — figures from the formation as Danièle Simonnet, Raquel Garrido or Alexis Corbière while understanding controversial personalities such as Adrien Quatennens, convicted of domestic violence for slapping his wife, as he himself admitted. The list has provoked a flood of reactions among the party’s deputies as well as its allies in the New Popular Front, the left-wing alliance designed to stop the rise of the extreme right after the European elections. “We prefer a man who beats his wife, a perpetrator of domestic violence, rather than colleagues who have the nerve to have a disagreement with the great leader,” the outgoing deputy stated on his social network account (and ‘de facto’ ally of the party), François Ruffin, in a message addressed to the party’s electoral commission. “Everyone was aware of their historical role: to unite, throw resentment into the river, avoid the worst, generate hope. But after the tragedy, after the hope, came the farce. The leaders of La Francia Insumisa, far from being the height of the circumstances, they are stooping to the worst levels,” he added. A “dark” commission, Corbière denounces on his part in his X account, “that punishes me for expressing criticism behind closed doors.” “This is a shame,” the deputy stressed shortly afterwards in statements to France Info, where he denounced “a totally petty settling of accounts when the point is to prevent the extreme right from taking power.” Raquel Garrido, for her part, has directly pointed to the founder of LFI, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, as responsible for a “sabotage” for which he has used “disgusting methods.” Deputy Clémentine Autain has also been unable to hide her dismay. “The extreme right is at the gates of power, an unprecedented meeting has just been formed on the left and La Francia Insumisa goes and decides to fracture our movement and weaken the alliance.” Corbiére and Autain were referring to the New Popular Front, the alliance resulting from the agreement between the French left against the rise of the extreme right and also to unseat Macronism in the next legislative elections, scheduled for June 30 and July 7. France Insoumise, the Socialist Party, the environmentalists and the Communist Party, it should be remembered, managed to bring positions closer together in record time after at the beginning of the week, shortly after President Emmanuel Macron called elections following the resounding victory of the Group National. Other members of the alliance have not sat idly by when the list was published. Marine Tondelier, national secretary of the Ecologists (EELV), has declared herself “very shocked” by what happened in the last few hours with the lists of La Francia Insumisa and has summoned the party’s leadership “to see what we do about it.” The leader of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure, has assured for his part that the New Popular Front “does not deserve to be sullied by irresponsible decisions.” “Since last night I have been trying to resolve the scandalous eviction of certain candidates. Then I will speak,” he indicated on the social network tomorrow his candidacy to compete directly against Adrien Quatennens, whom he has described as the “Achilles heel of the left.”
