"Francis is ready. En Avant!", tweeted Jean-Luc Mélenchon, thanks to a poll of "electoral potential" flattering for the deputy of the Somme.

According to a Cluster 17 study for Le Point, if the presidential election were held tomorrow, 39% of respondents believe their vote is "probable" or "possible" for Marine Le Pen, who comes out on top.

Behind, Edouard Philippe (25% electoral potential), Jean-Luc Mélenchon (24%), Jordan Bardella (23%) and François Ruffin (21%) stand in respect, while the margin of error is two points.

"Wonderful Cluster survey. François Ruffin and I pass the 20% mark," enthused Jean-Luc Mélenchon.

"All the work done over the past year has not been lost in the sand of +bashing+ ("denigration", editor's note) permanent against me. Francis is ready. Forward!", continues the leader of the Insoumis, seeming to push the deputy of the Somme on the path of the presidential election, in which Mr. Mélenchon has competed three times.

This is the first time that Jean-Luc Mélenchon openly evokes this track. But his tweet elicited little political reaction late Wednesday.

Francois Ruffin on March 29, 2023. © Charly TRIBALLEAU / AFP/Archives

The leader of the Insoumis, who came third in the last presidential election (22%), had indicated in January that he was "not a candidate" for his succession to represent the France insubordinate in the presidential election of 2027, while leaving the possibility that future "circumstances" decide otherwise.

"Only one candidate"

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

François Ruffin, 47, is one of the personalities whose names are circulating, within LFI and more broadly within the left, as potential candidates for the presidential election of 2027. In the PS, the PCF or among the ecologists, its evocation does not make people cringe, and can be an asset for a single candidacy of the Nupes.

"Francis for the left? This time must be the right one for the French!", tweeted the ecologist deputy Aurélien Taché, calling for the Nupes to have only "one candidate".

"I don't think about it in the morning while shaving or running," Ruffin said in an interview with online media Konbini in February, "but I know that there is a duty today to represent the most invisible of the nation."

"They need to be carried by a voice of hope that is on the left," he continued, adding: "if one day I have to embody this, I will do it."

Regularly since the end of the presidential election, the one who is considered a free electron within the LFI group in the Assembly, explains that the left can not win if it does not take into account the concerns and the way of talking of the rural popular classes.

He also distanced himself from the heated debates in the Assembly during the pension reform, caused in particular by LFI. "We have a duty to be at the height of the people, (those) who are out by the millions and with whom there are no clashes," explained the one who was one of the leaders of LFI during the debates, and participated in many meetings of the Nupes.

He is also one of the personalities who recently criticized the lack of internal democracy within the rebellious movement and had wished to integrate the leadership, without success.

Among the other names circulating for a possible candidacy in 2027, there is also the deputy Clémentine Autain, also criticized the functioning of LFI.

François Ruffin is at the head of the micro-party "Picardie Debout", and has created his financing association, "In the end it is us that we will win", one of his favorite slogans, which regularly concludes his meetings.

© 2023 AFP