Paris (AFP)

The call launched Monday by Laurent Joffrin for the "refoundation of a reformist left" going beyond the traditional parties received a "benevolent" reception from personalities, but the parties PS, EELV and LFI are more reserved, the Greens evoking an approach " baroque".

"It is an initiative on the left, we cannot be against," Ségolène Royal told AFP, commenting on this initiative by the ex-director of Liberation who is leaving office to launch a movement likely to unite socialists, environmentalists, radicals and disappointed with Emmanuel Macron.

His appeal, "Let's get involved", has so far been signed by 150 people, some of whom are known, from the entertainment world (Ariane Mnouchkine, Agnès Jaoui, Denis Podalydès, Benjamin Biolay ...) or intellectuals (Michel Wieviorka , Alain Touraine, Hélène Cixous, Mireille Delmas-Marty ...). The first working meeting will be held at the end of August.

"That left-wing intellectuals want to reflect together" on the re-founding of the left, "it can only be positive," said Ms. Royal.

The former presidential candidate nonetheless notices that Mr. Joffrin does not arrive "in a desert". "There are a lot of people who are thinking" about what could be a revival of the left, she says, highlighting her own association, "Desire for the future of the planet", which claims around 4,000 members and meets very regularly.

Emmanuel Grégoire, first deputy of the PS mayor of Paris, is on the same line. "Any move that agitates the left is good to take, the traditional left being broken down," he said.

- "No hidden plan" -

But for it to work, "it will be necessary to find convergences", he adds in turn, on the eve of a meeting, Tuesday in Tours, around the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the mayor EELV of Grenoble, Eric Piolle, with twenty socialist and green mayors, anxious to "think about how to influence the electoral issues to come".

"I do not believe that we should see in Joffrin's approach a hidden plan to put this or that personality in the saddle for 2022", advances the first Parisian deputy, alluding to those who, in the PS, fear a "piloted" operation for and by François Hollande for the next presidential election.

Laurent Joffrin, close to the former president whom he informed of his approach, also denies being the "puppet" of anyone. Anyway, "the idea of ​​a headliner is premature today," he says.

A federal executive of the PS nevertheless maintains that "the shadow of François Hollande will have nipped this initiative in the bud", "with mothballs, far from + the left according to + that the Socialist Party is working to bring out with a new generation of socialists ".

"It is a good approach from which François Hollande voluntarily keeps at a distance", assured his entourage to AFP: "He did not ask for anything and does not intend to get into it" .

"Is it a + submarine + operation for someone? I don't know", blurted Julien Bayou, the boss of the Greens. "What I know is that Joffrin did not wish to join forces. And to create a new movement to bring people together is baroque!"

Opinion shared by LFI. "It's a little curious", indicates the number two of the rebellious, Adrien Quatennens. Nonetheless, "we are watching this initiative with interest," he adds.

Olivier Dussopt, Minister of Public Accounts and former PS deputy, sees it for his part "another illustration of the fracturing of the left".

© 2020 AFP