Europe 1 with AFP // Photo credit: Samuel Boivin / NurPhoto / NurPhoto via AFP 10:40 am, August 22, 2023

Is the Nupes going through a new storm? While the four parties that make up the alliance (LFI, EELV, PS and PCF) launch their summer universities, the future of Nupes should be widely discussed. Among the tensions: the subject of the European elections.

Should the end of the Nupes now be considered? The question will be more than ever able to arise this week during the summer universities of the four left-wing parties, which will see if they can overcome their multiple points of disagreement. The socialists in Blois, the ecologists in Le Havre, the communists in Strasbourg and the Insoumise near Valence: each will launch on his side, but at the same time, this new political season.

"Summer universities have identity logics for parties: the game is to draw attention to oneself. They set the tempo for the start of the school year. The question of the Nupes will necessarily be addressed, it is unavoidable," says political scientist Rémi Lefebvre, believing that it is "very likely that some leaders do not play appeasement". The 2023/2024 political season that is taking shape will be punctuated by two elections: the senatorial elections in September and the European elections in June.

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A "double language" within the Nupes?

Two stumbling blocks for the left alliance. Recently, despite the summer break, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and Manuel Bompard have again denounced the "double language" of their allies, Manuel Bompard going so far as to accuse Act II of the Nupes of being "blocked by the refusal of (their) partners to move forward". In their sights in particular, an alliance excluding LFI for the first deadline and the appointment by the Greens and the Communists of their own leaders for the second.

The occasion of a pass of arms on X (ex-twitter) between Olivier Faure and Jean-Luc Mélenchon, from which it emerged that the links between the two leaders of the left are currently non-existent. "We have the feeling that LFI assumes that all this is over and that they want to blame the partners," a communist official told AFP. Another dissonance, more symbolic: the treatment reserved for the rapper Medina, invited Thursday to the summer universities of Europe Ecology - The Greens and Saturday to those of La France insoumise.

If his invitation, marred by accusations of anti-Semitism, has caused trouble among the Greens, thus putting pressure on Marine Tondelier, it seems to have gone much better with the Insoumis. "Medina is not racist," assured Jean-Luc Mélenchon, targeting the "subject to what will be said about the hypocrites" who are among the "opponents" of Macronism. There is no doubt that the rapper's reception in Le Havre and near Valence will be very different.

"Bazooka attack"

Despite these palpable tensions - "any criticism is taken as a bazooka attack" regrets the communist leader - the different parties have taken care to invite each other to their summer universities and to the Fête de l'Humanité, the other communist highlight of the new school year. On the program in particular, several conferences on the future of the left, including a session at the "AmFis" of LFI entitled "A new breath for the NUPES!", and bringing together a representative of the four main parties of the Nupes, which the communist leader Fabien Roussel found "outdated" in April.

Perhaps this conference will give an overview of the back-to-school seminar planned for September for the deputies of the New Ecological and Social People's Union, around Julien Bayou (EELV), Benjamin Lucas (Génération-s), Jérôme Guedj (PS), Elsa Faucillon (PCF) and Danielle Simonnet (LFI). Perhaps the opportunity to revive the parliamentary version of this alliance, which is, by all accounts, the one that has worked best.

"The union of the left was not born with the Nupes. It is not by reproducing what it was in 2022 that the left will win: it is necessary to invent another form of union, to take a qualitative leap," said the communist leader. With the examination scheduled for the autumn on the immigration bill, the left will seek to forget its divisions to better mark its opposition to the government.

A serenity that the parties will need even internally: within the Socialist Party, Carole Delga, PS president of the Occitanie region fiercely opposed to the Nupes, will shun the appointment.