“As you prepare for your 2024, you will have your 2027.”

The Insoumis officially launched their campaign for the European elections on Saturday March 16, a vote which will be "the first round" of the next presidential election, underlined Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who will appear on the list in a symbolic place.

“This is the first time that this election will take on the particular meaning of a mid-term vote,” warned the founder of La France insoumise in front of the activists (more than 3,000 according to the organizers) waving La France flags rebellious and chanting “Popular Union”, the slogan of the radical left movement.

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“We have the right to say that the European election of 2024 prepares the presidential election of 2027 (...) We have to start well, so it starts today, we are not ashamed to say it,” said launched the three-time presidential candidate, who still leaves doubt as to his intentions for the next race for the Élysée.

“The post-Macron begins on June 9. We opened this path with Jean-Luc Mélenchon's 22% in the presidential election, then with the creation of Nupes on a clear program of rupture,” launched the rebellious MEP and head of the list Manon Aubry, renewing her appeal to the “orphans” of the late left-wing alliance.

“True left” 

But if the campaign for 2027 begins now, the union of the left seems compromised.

“We embody, sometimes quite alone, the last line of resistance”, launched the coordinator of the movement Manuel Bompard, castigating the “irresponsibility of those who made the choice of division” for the Europeans, to the jeers of the activists.

Huguette Bello, president of the regional council of Reunion whose symbolic presence in last place on the list - just after Jean-Luc Mélenchon - was announced on Saturday, greeted in LFI "the true left, the one which has not betrayed the working classes, the authentic left"

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While the idea defended by LFI of a common list in June has collapsed - the Insoumis had even proposed its head to Marie Toussaint of the Ecologists - the four main left-wing lists are competing for a market share of around 30%.

The rebels know that traditionally, European elections are not their favorite election.

The last time, in 2019, the list led by Manon Aubry, a neophyte at the time, finished with 6.31% of the votes. 

However, with a few thousand votes ahead of Raphaël Glucksmann who, this time, is ahead of the Ecologists and the Rebels in the polls.

Nevertheless, Manon Aubry has the ambition to take first place on the left, with a score of 10%, while in the various polls, her list is given around 7 or 8%.

Minute of silence

To mobilize its troops during the campaign, LFI intends in particular to emphasize the situation in Gaza - Manon Aubry made a point of mentioning "the ongoing humanitarian carnage" at the conclusion of the first European debate on Thursday on Public Senate.

The Franco-Palestinian activist Rima Hassan, present in 7th place on the list, was given a standing ovation on Saturday by the activists. 

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“The rights of the Palestinian people have not been respected for almost 75 years,” she declared, denouncing “one of the last colonial conflicts in the world”, after having observed a minute of silence for the Palestinian victims.

“Apartheid is a crime, it is now documented for the Palestinians,” she insisted.

This meeting was notably an opportunity to present to the rebellious activists the former coordinator of Génération.s Arash Saeidi and the MEP Damien Carême (ex-EELV), the "war prizes" of the Insoumis for this election who are in position eligible on the list.

After a symbolic vote by activists, the nomination of Manon Aubry as head of the list was made official on Saturday.

Number 3 of La France insoumise also mentioned her intention to “make June 9 a major referendum against the austerity pact”.

“The debt can be negotiated, not the planet,” she insisted.

With AFP

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