In a press release published overnight on his Twitter account, Taha Bouhafs, 25, deplored "an unprecedented storm of attacks", especially since the confirmation on Sunday of his investiture by LFI in the 14th district of the Rhône, to the chagrin of the communist mayor of Vénissieux Michèle Picard.

"I underestimated the power of this system when it wants to crush you," he wrote in particular.

"I've been supported, not enough to hold on, but enough to be grateful for. I hope this statement doesn't make you give up. Keep fighting. For my part, I tried but I couldn't. happens anymore,” he concludes.

Asked about France 2 to confirm that Mr. Bouhafs would therefore not be a candidate, Alexis Corbière felt "that it must be interpreted like that".

"All of this is a great acknowledgment of failure", he lamented about this announcement, which constitutes a first hitch in the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) for the legislative elections.

"I take note of his decision and I ask that it be respected", he added, assuring that LFI had made no pressure to obtain this withdrawal, claimed Monday by one of its allies, the national secretary of the PCF, Fabien Roussel.

He had asked LFI to "review" the candidacy of Taha Bouhafs to "create the conditions to win" in this constituency.

He deplored in particular the fact that Taha Bouhafs was sentenced to a fine of 1,500 euros, in particular for public insult for having treated the police unionist Linda Kebab of "Arab service", a conviction which he appealed.

"Anyway there will be a candidate from La France insoumise and in any case, a number of arguments that have been used publicly against Mr. Bouhafs, I considered them scandalous", recalled Mr. Corbière, who had denounced at the end of April a "facies offense" and a relentlessness of "little hyenas" against the LFI candidate.

"It is high time to face the injustice, the violence of the attacks from the far right, relayed ad nauseam in the media, by the macronie and even in certain ranks on the left, against a young man without a diploma, from working-class neighborhoods and immigration," lamented another LFI MP, Clémentine Autain, on Twitter on Tuesday.

© 2022 AFP