His priority is to "finish the intellectual work", he confided.

"I am not part of the battle for my succession", indicated from Guyana the one who was a candidate in the last three presidential elections.

“Do you want me to sign a paper for you?”, he still quipped, believing that “it is the circumstances that make the applications”.

To succeed him, "if someone succeeds in being loved, in emulation rather than competition, then it will come by itself" for the choice of the candidate, judged the 71-year-old tribune.

"It's been a while since I thought I was replaceable," he said, saying he had "made all the arrangements" for this to happen.

Nevertheless, he regretted the recent crisis at La France insoumise, which saw figures like Clémentine Autain, François Ruffin and Alexis Corbière denounce the reshuffle, without them, of the movement's leadership.

"We are currently experiencing a huge growth crisis, we have gone from 17 to 75 deputies", observed the former president of the group.

"You have to adapt, get used to each other, share positions, there are fearful characters who want to be present everywhere," he added.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon called for preserving the form of the movement and "not recreating a party", which "does not lead us anywhere".

He exclaimed: "I heard terrible words... +Purge+, who was purged? (...) It would be better if they remained united, it's not a good idea to denigrate the movement, to say that it is not democratic because it is, it is federative".

The founder of LFI concluded: "I tell them + Be reasonable +".

© 2023 AFP