France: towards a union of the left without LFI in the senatorials, the Nupes cracks

While tensions are shaking the Nupes around the attitude of the Insoumise in the face of the riots of recent days, the Union of the Left has formalized this Wednesday its first electoral stoppage. Socialists, communists and ecologists have indeed decided to make a national agreement for the senatorial elections, without including La France Insoumise (LFI).

The French Senate, March 6, 2023 (illustration image). © ALAIN JOCARD / AFP

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It is a "burial of the Nupes" is carried away LFI which did not welcome the news, like the deputy Paul Vannier, in charge of the electoral negotiations for the Insoumis: "I have the feeling of a huge waste, a mistake and then a renunciation since the choice that is made, it is a choice that does not allow us to progress, says the MP joined by Aurélien Devernoix, from the political service. While combined, the Nupes could win seats on the right.

Opposite, his counterpart of the Socialist Party (PS) Pierre Jouvet tries to delay. "Does that mean it's over for the Nupes? The answer is no, the socialist assures RFI. We act first in responsibility, then in reality in electoral issues.

Not enough electors at LFI

And this principle of reality is the choice of LFI to have disdained the previous local elections, providers of grand electors to appoint senators, but for Paul Vannier, there is also another explanation: "There is a choice of division that also prevails probably because we are facing interlocutors who are weak in their own organizations and who are constrained by local barons."

Local barons for many hostile to the Nupes and who see in this episode the proof that the agreement of 2022 was not intended to survive beyond the legislative elections. The union will be put to the test again in 2024 during the European elections where each party is due to present its own list.

To listen alsoPolitics, the choice of the week - Senatorial: the very modest ambitions of the presidential camp

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