All for that. The New Ecological and Social Popular Union (Nupes) had announced a march of its deputies from the National Assembly to the Elysee, Tuesday, April 4, to deliver a letter asking for the withdrawal of the pension reform to the head of state. They had to be 150 to cross the Seine, then the Place de la Concorde, to demand to be received by Emmanuel Macron. The image was intended to make the buzz. But faced with the differences of some and the reluctance of others, they were finally only a handful of parliamentarians, mainly communists, to go in the morning in front of the Elysee, where Patrick Strzoda, the president's chief of staff, kindly picked up their mail.

This failed communication operation, which is part of a context of divisions, promises a hectic working seminar of the Napes intergroup. Meeting on Tuesday evening for only the third time in nine months, all the deputies of La France insoumise (LFI), the Socialist Party (PS), Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV) and the Communist Party (PCF) are invited to take stock of the sequence of pensions, but also to iron out their differences and discuss the parliamentary strategy of the coming months.

>> Read also: On pensions, the strategy of the double game of the National Rally

"Contrary to what I hear, there is no crisis at La Nupes, wants to reassure LFI MP Eric Coquerel. There will be discussions, but there are no differences on the substance, the left is united on a program of rupture. Now, we have endorsed the idea of seeing each other more often by organizing a seminar once a month. The goal is to create more links and debates between us, with more frequent meetings."

There will be no shortage of debates about the new deputy of Ariège, for whom the identity of the group where she will sit in the National Assembly has not yet been decided. Dissident socialist candidate, Martine Frogier was elected Sunday, April 2 at the expense of the outgoing LFI deputy supported by the Nupes, Bénédicte Taurine, bringing to light again the internal divisions among the socialists, between pro and anti-Nupes.

Being elected with the support of all the right, it allows tonight to win against the union of the left and the ecologists. It will not build the alternative that the country needs.
This is called a Pyrrhic victory. #Ariege #froger pic.twitter.com/7QeXbyBy33

— Olivier Faure (@faureolivier) April 2, 2023

The first secretary of the PS, Olivier Faure, denounced Sunday evening this election in a statement clearly suggesting that the newly elected had no place within the socialist group. "Being elected with the support of all the right, it allows tonight to win against the union of the left and the ecologists. It will not build the alternative that the country needs. This is called a Pyrrhic victory," he wrote on Twitter.

Contacted by France 24, he drives the point home: "To be elected thanks to the right and the extreme right and to see that you have all the government and the extreme right who welcome it by talking about an inverted republican dam, it is a moral shipwreck. What majority can you build when your main opponent is the rest of the left?"

The Nupes "cannot accommodate a dissident"

Eliminated in the first round, the candidate of the Renaissance party, Anne-Sophie Tribout, had indeed called to vote for the dissident socialist in the second round. And Sunday evening, several ministers – Olivier Dussopt, Clément Beaune, Franck Riester – but also the boss of the Renaissance group in the Assembly, Aurore Bergé, and the deputy of the National Rally Julien Odoul congratulated Martine Froger for her victory.

Congratulations to the voters of the #Ariège who after eliminating the candidate of #Macron in the 1st round, released the candidate of the extreme left who played the game of power by preventing the vote on the #ReformeDesRetaites. One less LFI MP is a victory for the Republic!

— Julien ODOUL (@JulienOdoul) April 2, 2023

On the side of the anti-Napes socialists, this election is on the contrary a sign that the alliance with LFI advocated since the spring of 2022 by Olivier Faure is a dead end. The victory of Martine Froger, supported in particular by former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga, the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo and the mayor of Rouen and leader of the opposition to Olivier Faure, Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol, would illustrate the desire of left-wing voters for a less radical line.

"This is proof that a Nupes with a dominant rebellious France does not work. It's a glass ceiling," Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol told AFP on Monday, in line with his Sunday night press release, which called for "another gathering of the left".

Socialist MP Valérie Rabault said Tuesday on Franceinfo that Olivier Faure's statement was "a scandal" and called on her parliamentary group to welcome into it "an activist who has given a lot to the Socialist Party".

🗣 "The statement is a scandal. To speak like that of a militant who has given a lot to the PS is not acceptable," maintains PS MP @Valerie_Rabault about Olivier Faure's press release on the election of dissident Martine Froger in Ariège. #franceinfo @ABouilhaguet pic.twitter.com/QFDZkADDSd

— franceinfo plus (@franceinfoplus) April 4, 2023

The rest of Nupes is on the lookout, especially the LFI group. "She can't sit with us. We cannot accommodate a dissident who defeated one of our MPs. Let her go to Liot, as has already been advanced," said Eric Coquerel, referring to the group Libertés, Indépendants, Outre-mer, Territoires composed of centrist elected representatives.

Beyond the Martine Froger case, it is the global strategy of the Nupes that will be put on the table Tuesday evening. Some MPs acknowledge that the excesses of the rebels end up being detrimental to the entire left. Especially since the government, and in particular the Minister of the Interior Gérald Darmanin, occupies the media field with a strategy of demonization of the Snupes.

"The Nupes is outdated, we must gather well beyond"

"Obviously, the speech of Gérald Darmanin, for whom the left is anti-republican, ecoterrorist and Islamo-leftist, has a vocation: it aims to disqualify by words and to rally from the center-right to the extreme right on the question of order. It's a very dangerous game," said Olivier Faure.

"It's a message that is gradually entering people's heads," abounds EELV MP Sandrine Rousseau. But it is also a sign that what we are building on the left worries the government. Whether on pensions or on basins, these are projects of a past world and the French are fed up with liberal policies and they are tired of being taken for fools. It's up to us to make history."

The ecologist deputy, who proposes "a form of Constituent Assembly of the Wetlands", is one of those who have been pleading for several months for an "Act II" of the Nupes. The expression has flourished and even Jean-Luc Mélenchon ended up subscribing to it, Sunday, April 2, on France 3, declaring himself "supporter" of a new stage of the union of the left.

>> Read also: By demonizing the left, Emmanuel Macron is he playing "a rather dangerous game"?

"We need new common rules and we must aim to build a coalition project that allows us to converge on the substance, all in unity," insists Olivier Faure.

Can this coalition open up to the movement of Bernard Cazeneuve, who supported the dissident Martine Froger? This is what the boss of the communists Fabien Roussel demands, Monday, April 3, in an interview with L'Express.

"The Stub, it is outdated. It is necessary to gather far beyond. We need to talk to the whole left. It is not conceivable to exclude anyone if we want to embody a force of progress capable of winning, "says the former candidate in the presidential election.

A proposal that did not fail to warm up a little more spirits before the meeting scheduled for Tuesday evening. "I propose to Fabien Roussel to devote himself to the organization of his barbecue with Cazeneuve and to leave the Nupes alone. His little game of divisor has already cost us the second round of the presidential election, "reacted on Twitter the deputy LFI Paul Vannier.

I propose to Fabien Roussel to devote himself to the organization of his barbecue with Cazeneuve and to leave the #NUPES alone.

His little game of divisor has already cost us the second round of the presidential election. https://t.co/yXJWlVP64X

— Paul Vannier (@PaulVannierFI) April 3, 2023

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