Jean-Luc Mélenchon has managed to make a hole in the polls over his competitors on the left.
The LFI candidate hopes to benefit from a useful vote in the final stretch of the campaign.
To reach the second round, the rebels rely on a broad mobilization of their activists.
Neither the rain nor the icy wind dampen their enthusiasm.
Patrick Lefrançois, head of the LFI section of the 15th arrondissement of Paris, is in towing operation with a handful of friends this Friday morning on the Saint-Charles market.
In the midst of competing activists, they distribute leaflets bearing the image of the "people's president", Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
“Oh no not him!
He's a socialist!
“, dodges an old lady.
“He left the PS a long time ago, madam!
I'm sure you haven't read his program.
»
In this land of the right, disdain or annoyance are commonplace.
“We are not in the promised land here, but we have some sympathizers.
It is important to show us on the ground, ”slips the former LFI candidate for the legislative elections.
Less than two months before the first round of the presidential election, the rebellious are stepping up their actions all over the territory.
The objective: to mobilize their electorate to hope to bring Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the second round of the presidential election.
Make Mélenchon, the useful vote on the left
In the staff of La France insoumise, we play the "quiet force".
“We respect our roadmap.
The first step was to be in the lead on the left, to crystallize a second round hypothesis at the end of February-beginning of March.
This is largely the case, smiles Manuel Bompard, the campaign manager of the candidate LFI.
A smooth and quiet progression is now expected in the last month of the campaign.
»
The strategy is simple: make the rebellious candidacy appear as the only one capable of reaching the second round to bring together the left-wing electorate in the home stretch.
LFI also received unexpected help this week.
“The useful vote on the left is Mélenchon”, dropped Ségolène Royal, the former socialist finalist for the presidential election in 2007. What would make the interested party blush, Thursday evening, on BFMTV.
“His support is valuable.
But I don't really like the word "useful vote", because I have suffered from it in the past.
And useless voting does not exist.
“On the leaflets distributed this Friday on the market, less “gazelle modesty”, according to the expression popularized by the rebellious leader: “The Mélenchon vote, the only effective vote.
»
An active mobilization platform
To hammer home this message, the rebels say they are very well organized.
“There is a whole field work that goes under the media radar but that we have been carrying out since the start of the campaign.
We have invested a lot in door-to-door training and done a lot of internal phoning work to mobilize all our support, with today 3,000 local groups and 40,000 active activists, ”says MEP Manuel Bompard.
The party relies mainly on the "Popular Action" platform, launched at the end of 2020. This kind of social network allows any sympathizer to join or launch nearby campaign events: towing, door-to-door, collage of posters, meetings… “It is also a tool for measuring the health of our campaign.
In two weeks, we doubled the number of events, with more than 2,000 per week, which is a record.
We feel that people are really getting into the campaign, ”boasts Jill Maud Royer, head of digital tools for the movement.
“Trust a shrewd election turtle like me”
Will this underground mobilization make it possible to do better than in 2017?
If he has picked up a few points in the polls in recent weeks, Jean-Luc Mélenchon remains far from qualifying for the second round for the moment.
The multiplication of candidacies could also scatter the votes on the left, especially since the image of the tribune has deteriorated in public opinion during this five-year term.
On the Parisian market, this Friday, a few passers-by thus evoke the name of Fabien Roussel.
The former communist ally, who this time decided to race solo, could take valuable points from the rebellious.
“He does not play the game, Roussel, he is in a productivist logic.
The real program on the left, in line with Jaurès, is Mélenchon, ”replies Patrick Lefrançois to the undecided.
The rebellious candidate, for his part, had shown himself to be a philosopher in mid-January during a meeting in Nantes.
“Trust a shrewd election turtle like me!
There's no point in running, you have to start on time and I've already exhausted a few hares.
»
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Elections
Presidential election 2022
Countryside
Jean-Luc Melenchon
Fabien Roussel
La France Insoumise (LFI)
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