Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his troops, gathered on Saturday for their convention in Reims, assume to lead a presidential campaign without major novelty compared to 2017, hoping to capitalize on their militant know-how and on the notoriety of the LFI candidate.

Emmanuel Macron, likely candidate for a new term at the Elysee, probably does not have, for the moment, any particular concern about the left and La France insoumise, rarely given above 10% of voting intentions in the polls.

But the Insoumis, who gathered on Saturday in the Reims exhibition center 1,000 members, display a form of serenity, strong from their experiences of 2012 and 2017. Jean-Luc Mélenchon had achieved respectively more than 11% and 19.5% of the votes .

The advantage of notoriety

"We are not going to start from a blank page", explains the coordinator of La France insoumise Adrien Quatennens.

After 2017, "it's a cumulative process, what is done is already done", he adds.

With the risk of not surprising: "We assume, a campaign is not a marketing object where everything must change," insists the deputy from the North.

This is first of all the case for the construction of the Mélenchon candidate.

The character is divisive but he has the advantage of notoriety.

"People saw what it was like when a president was elected that they did not know three years before," said campaign director Manuel Bompard, targeting Emmanuel Macron from the outset.

"Push the cursor in intensity"

Behind Jean-Luc Mélenchon, the troops will replicate the methods of the 2017 campaign, such as the intensive use of social networks and caravans in working-class neighborhoods, LFI's target electorate but prone to abstention. “We set up a barnum, a table and folding chairs on a square in a city,” explains deputy Alexis Corbière, setting the goal of one million new voters registered on the electoral rolls, in particular young people.

The rebels praise their "work habits" to "push the cursor in intensity", with the appearance of "activist kits" and "argumentative sheets" to reinforce door-to-door and traditional towing.

The new “Popular Action” application also provides an internal social network, while the “People's Union parliament” will come in November to formalize the support of politicians, trade unionists and intellectuals.

A Bible still relevant today

The "habit" is also the promotion of "the Common Future", the program considered as a Bible internally and already at work in 2017. The Insoumis consider that most of its content is still valid for 2022 and, for its release on November 18, simply updated it, in particular with the 95 private members' bills.

“What is the point of changing a program considered in 2017 as the best by various NGOs?

“, Is proud of the co-responsible of the program Hadrien Toucel, to the applause of the conventional ones.

A novelty, however: its variation in “plans”, quantified measures to respond to various social, environmental and democratic emergencies.

And show that Jean-Luc Mélenchon can indeed exercise power, despite the radicalism he advocates.

The first two, on food and violence against women, were presented on Saturday.

Social hope

As in 2017, the Insoumis hope that the social theme will prevail in the campaign, while the far right has seen its media base reinforced by the emergence, in addition to Marine Le Pen, of the polemicist Éric Zemmour as a potential candidate. .

"The question of the price of gasoline, gas, food" will be capital, wants to believe the new president of the group of deputies Mathilde Panot, to whom Jean-Luc Mélenchon passed the hand this week in the Assembly national.

Another thing does not change: it is Jean-Luc Mélenchon who will conclude the rebellious weekend with a meeting on Sunday morning.

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  • France Insoumise (LFI)

  • Jean-Luc Mélenchon

  • Presidential election 2022