Toulouse (AFP)

Insubordinate France has for the first time launched its Summer Universities in Toulouse without its charismatic leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who stayed in Brazil to meet Lula in prison. The opportunity to prove that the movement can "work" without him, ensure his frames.

Anticipating the questions, the new coordinator Adrien Quatennens himself addressed the subject, Friday in a press conference at the Congress Center Pierre Baudis where are held "Amfis" until Sunday: "There is someone we miss , and we miss him. "

"It's an opportunity to do, physically and in action, the demonstration that Jean-Luc himself wants: that there is no need for his omnipresence to make things work", because "he has contributed to train other militant generations, "said the 29-year-old manager.

"Despite his absence, we know he is at the task for the movement," he added, referring to the visit that Mr. Mélenchon will make on September 5 to the former Brazilian president Lula, in his prison in Brazil.

This absence fits more broadly in a step back from the rebellious leader, appeared marked on the evening of the European elections on May 26, by the very low score of 6.3% of LFI - far from its 19.58% in the presidential election - despite a campaign in which he was very involved.

He spent most of the summer in Latin America, meeting with Mexican President of the Left Andrés Manuel López Obrador, then spending his holidays there until the meeting with Lula, whose late date made him give up round trip to Toulouse.

The conference that Mr. Mélenchon had to give on Friday evening promised to be the highlight of the "Amfis", but Adrien Quatennens preferred to put forward numbers: 1,500 pre-registered, 130 conferences and workshops, 250 speakers.

"I've been listening to Jean-Luc Mélenchon for 25 years", and also close to AFP Raquel Garrido, a long-time friend. "I love Mélenchon, I enjoy listening to him, but it's as good as we show what we all know internally: we do not have him," adds Victor, 25 , militant in Boulogne-Billancourt.

For proof, according to him, Adrien Quatennens "ensured a speech of fire" Thursday evening with the word of reception addressed to the militants. As a symbol, the performance was interrupted for a short time by the false start of a video of Jean-Luc Mélenchon recorded from Mexico. "Even when he's not here, he's still there," Mr. Quatennens smiled.

- "Humility" -

Because we should not see in this temporary withdrawal a transfer of power within LFI. The new coordinator is one of his most loyal lieutenants. "Those who want Melenchon's retirement are going to be disappointed, he has just organized his own freedom, and when he comes back from Latin America, he will be eager" to reinvest himself in the foreground, Raquel Garrido anticipates.

Delegating his authority to the next generation "allows him to focus on the essential", because "it remains our main issuer", decrypts Arnaud Le Gall, one of the thinking heads of the international program.

"We will always need the figure, what it embodies," said Danielle Simonnet, co-coordinator of the Left Party, founding component of LFI. "In the working-class neighborhoods, people know Jean-Luc Mélenchon much more than La France réuboumise," she notes.

Still, the atmosphere, in these "Amfis" summer 2019, is humility. The event is held in the shadow of the University of EELV, organized within walking distance of Toulouse and 2,000 participants. After their success in Europe (13.5%), ecologists intend to take advantage of their momentum to win town halls in March, and take the leadership of the opposition on the left. An insubstantial delegation has also moved Thursday night at Le Mirail University.

The 2018 edition, during which LFI highlighted its opening guests and its centrality on the left, seems far away. "You have to take the long time," says Danielle Simonnet, who believes: "We do not start from scratch, because we have gained legitimacy and experience in the struggles, but we must humility to take the stick of pilgrim".

© 2019 AFP