Believing that “the left has no chance of winning this constituency if it is not united”, Amandine Germain has decided to respect the NFP agreement and line up behind Melenchonist Lyès Louffok.
The situation is gradually unravelling in Isère. With just a few weeks to go before the by-election expected this winter – and provoked by the resignation of outgoing Insoumis candidate Hugo Prevost, accused of sexual assault -the starting line is beginning to take shape. This applies to the central bloc, where former minister and local MP, Olivier Véran, has announced that he would not be standing for his lost mandate last July, paving the way for his former deputy, Camille Galliard-Minier. But the same is true on the left, where socialist Amandine Germain has just informed her constituents that she is withdrawing her dissidence in favor of Insoumis candidate Lyès Louffok.
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In the Socialist Party, however, some felt that the local candidate had a better chance than her Mélenchonist comrade of winning in this territory. The rebellious Insoumis also accused the Socialists of not respecting the Nouveau Front Populaire agreement, pointing out that the 1st constituency of Isère had been allocated to LFI in the post-dissolution distribution. A mano a mano was thus engaged, and the scenario of two left-wing candidates was not excluded.
“Without listening”
Amandine Germain finally felt that “in the current context, the left has no chance of winning this constituency if it is not united.”. The departmental councillor is no less critical of the Melenchonist apparatus. “I regret La France Insoumise’s position of imposing a candidate without listening or prior and local discussion, as well as the intransigence and methods of the LFI political apparatus, which seriously worry me for the future of the union of the left.”she lamented.
The Socialist Party still has to meet in its national office to act on the decision in the next few hours. But the outcome is no longer in doubt, even by the admission of certain members of the leadership. This brings to a close the little soap opera that began in early October with the hypothesis of a single candidacy by Lucie Castets, the NFP’s summer “premier-ministrable”. But the Insoumis had set a non-negotiable condition: pointing out that this constituency was allocated to them, they had demanded that the senior civil servant sit in the LFI group in the event of victory. Which she refused..