A long meeting of officials Thursday gave birth to a joint statement the next day, minimalist.

He announces a campaign by the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (Nupes), which consists of joint meetings - including the first on January 17 in Paris -, the proposal to meet with the inter-union and the call to form unitary collectives on the whole territory.

No counter-project has been announced, even though the coalition program last May provided for retirement at age 60.

And "not sure" that this will change after the inter-group meeting scheduled for next week, anticipates the socialist deputy Arthur Delaporte.

"We must do like the unions: we are not in government, we are not there to make a reform, but we say no to an unjust reform", "this is what brings the French together", supports this young rising value of the PS.

The joint declaration does not mention either the march of January 21 at the call of youth organizations, put forward by Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

The left will thus be less united there than in the march against the high cost of living last October.

MP Aurélie Trouvé, who represented LFI in the discussions, underlined to AFP the positive of the joint declaration: "It's not nothing, it's the first joint campaign outside the elections".

She reports that the meeting stretched because it was necessary "to find a common language".

Supporting roles

Indeed, the first secretary of the PS Olivier Faure judges in Liberation that, in recent months, "the secondary debates have thrown us off balance and led us astray on the side roads, whether it is a question of the barbecue or the left of labor against that allowances".

He points to the "great risk of turning in on oneself" and asks Nupes to "change gear".

Socialist deputy Arthur Delaporte at the National Assembly, November 28, 2022 © Emmanuel DUNAND / AFP/Archives

He will however be condemned to a certain caution in January with the approach of the votes at the congress of the PS, for which he faces two motions which judge his relationship with the Insoumis too complacent.

The PCF is also involved in a delicate congress, for which opposition to Fabien Roussel has been declared.

As for EELV, Marine Tondelier, elected leader in December, must constantly play the balancing act between supporters of the union on the left and supporters of an ecological affirmation.

But the sick body of the Nupes is called LFI, nothing less than its locomotive.

The activists and figures of the movement founded by Jean-Luc Mélenchon are torn over the Quatennens affair, excluded from the group in the Assembly for four months after his conviction for domestic violence, and over the appointment of the management, too restrictive according to some .

As if to stick together, these detractors, François Ruffin, Clémentine Autain, Alexis Corbière, Eric Coquerel, Raquel Garrido and Leïla Chaïbi, will hold a joint meeting on pensions on February 16 in Bobigny, AFP learned from Ms. Garrido, confirming information from the Parisian.

"We have to manage to find each other despite our differences", judges the environmentalist deputy Benjamin Lucas, for whom the Nupes "plays a lot on this sequence".

He explains that she is naturally carried by this subject of pensions, but also expected at the turn: "If I won the second round of the legislative elections, it is thanks to the pensions, I had the carryover of votes from the RN" .

Thus, pleads Benjamin Lucas, "we must do everything that is legally possible in parliament to block the reform. No modesty about obstruction", which LFI had pushed to the climax in 2019-2020 during the previous project carried by Emmanuel Macron .

On the other hand, the boss of the CGT Philippe Martinez warned Thursday evening on Mediapart that the left should, in the street, be confined to supporting roles: "It is not necessary that the politicians do in place of the unions, as sometimes there are has a temptation to do so".

© 2023 AFP