La Francia Insoumise published its list of 230 candidates for the early legislative elections late this past Friday, leaving out such prominent — and discordant — figures from the party as Danièle Simonnet, Raquel Garrido and Alexis Corbière, while has included controversial personalities such as Adrien Quatennens, convicted of domestic violence for slapping his wife, as he himself admitted. “We prefer a man who beats his wife, a perpetrator of domestic violence, than colleagues who have the nerve to have a disagreement with the great leader,” the outgoing deputy (and ally ‘de facto’ party), François Ruffin, in a message addressed to the party’s electoral commission. 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.”
