“Mélenchon does not want to be president, but leader of the opposition to Marine Le Pen” | EUROtoday
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HASAt the Bistrot de Paris, we’re a bit at dwelling. The liveried waiters of this beautiful brasserie close to the Musée d'Orsay virtually kind a guard of honor for Jean-Christophe Cambadélis, who strolls between the tables along with his customary nonchalance, elegantly wearing a grey turtleneck and a jacket in midnight blue corduroy, and nonetheless the nice hair slicked again which supplies him an air of first set off in THE Uncle gunslingers. “Hello Mr. Cambadélis, how are you?” » ; “Hello, Mr. Cambadélis, it’s good to see you once more. »
The former boss of the PS has not returned to the Bistrot de Paris for fairly a while. However, it is sufficient to introduce him to his historical past with the brewery, in the course of the lamb parmentier with a glass of rosé, for “Camba” to slim his eyes, smile and recount the well-known pictures he ready. there, like so many milestones within the historical past of the PS.
The PS scullery
The Bistrot de Paris is at first the canteen of the RPR, whose headquarters may be very shut, in the identical rue de Lille. Then the socialists, put in on rue de Solférino in 1980, took over. “Camba” shortly has his serviette ring there, similar to Lionel Jospin, Laurent Fabius (who sits on the similar desk, within the again), Dominique Strauss-Kahn, Henri Emmanuelli and Manuel Valls. Sometimes the outdated Gaullist Pierre Mazeaud will get drunk whereas having lunch with some socialist oils from his pals. But it’s above all within the stunning carpeted rooms on the primary ground that some political coups are fomented out of sight.
Jean-Christophe Cambadélis is usually there, since he is without doubt one of the organizers. He recounts these conferences by counting them along with his fingers. One: the preparatory conferences for the plural left of 1997. They came about throughout dinners each Tuesday with Dominique Voynet, Lionel Jospin, the ecologist Yves Cochet and the communist Philippe Herzog. Two: the placing into orbit of the Strauss-Kahn motion within the early 2000s. One day, whereas they have been gathered within the “billiard room”, the Strauss-Kahnians heard laughter within the adjoining room. We press our ears in opposition to the partition and we hear, oh shock, the Fabiusian opponents additionally making ready their present and the long run match in opposition to DSK and Ségolène Royal… “We had to wait 4 p.m. to sneak out of our room” , laughs “Camba”.
Three: the development in 2007 of the “reconstructors”, this group between Strauss-Kahnians and Fabiusians to counter the rise in energy of Ségolène Royal and put together the return of DSK by supporting Martine Aubry. Four: a 12 months in the past, a secret dinner with François Hollande, Bernard Cazeneuve, Stéphane Le Foll, the mayors of Vaulx-en-Velin (Hélène Geoffroy) and Rouen (Nicolas Mayer-Rossignol), and even the ex- boss of Release, Laurent Joffrin. The conspirators agree to dam the trail of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, responsible of their eyes of dragging the PS into an abyss of radicalism from which it won’t emerge, or poorly. “We decided that evening to put together a list for the European elections if the PS signed an agreement with Nupes for this election. This threat, linked to the radicalization of Mélenchon, convinced Olivier Faure that another solution had to be found,” Cambadélis needs to imagine.
Five (and final finger and final notable assembly on the Bistrot de Paris): just a few weeks in the past, the ex-MP for Paris introduced a copious doc ensuing from the work of round 100 consultants. His membership, Le Lab de la social-democracy, intends to “found” this political motion. “I say founding and not refounding, because the PS has never been social democratic. He always had to take the PC from the left to win elections, which prevented the culture of compromise specific to social democracy. The Socialist Party was “rupturist” with Blum and Mitterrand, social-democratic with out saying so with Jospin, social-liberal with out accepting it with Hollande,” analyzes “Camba”.
At 72, the previous president of Unef doesn’t intend to cease placing collectively mixtures, typically complicated to the purpose of complicated his comrades. “People say to me: “But you’re indestructible!” », says this miracle, who fell from a 3rd ground on the age of seven with out an excessive amount of hurt. Politics is his driving pressure, which has pushed him ahead since he joined the Lambertists of the OCI, the place he rubbed shoulders along with his older twin, Jean-Luc Mélenchon. We keep in mind in the future, about fifteen years in the past, he arrived on the restaurant (La Cagouille, a mecca for Mitterrand lunches) with a drawing of a form of universe depicting planets, names and arrows.
On the prepare to Paris, he had outlined this galaxy of socialist personalities, with, there, Fabius surrounded by satellites (his lieutenants, like Claude Bartolone or the late Henri Weber), the “royalists” (Aurélie Filippetti, Vincent Peillon…) gravitating round of the woman, Delanoë and his stars of the second, like François Hollande, and naturally DSK surrounded by a myriad of stars (“Camba”, Pierre Moscovici, Jean-Marie Le Guen…). Somewhat earlier than the election of François Hollande, Jean-Christophe Cambadélis curiously confided that he didn’t need to be a minister; he most well-liked to change into boss of the PS, the place we actually do politics.
Laurent Berger, one among his candidates for the Élysée
Today, he has given himself a mission: to create the circumstances to launch a social-democratic candidacy for the following presidential election. Raphaël Glucksmann's ballot success for the European election validates, he says, his thesis: the affordable, republican and secular left just isn’t condemned to dissolve into radicalism. He doesn't depend on his fingers however he has his plan in a number of steps. First, a base of concepts with a view to entice center-left voters undoubtedly orphaned by macronism in 2027. Then, a tactic: take the Socialist Party by uniting all of the opponents of Olivier Faure on the subsequent congress, undoubtedly in 2026. Finally, a candidate for the Élysée. This is the place it will get unhealthy. Nobody imposes itself. Cambadélis places ahead just a few names with out giving the impression of actually believing in them: François Hollande, with whom he’s in common contact, Bernard Cazeneuve, Carole Delga, the record just isn’t exhaustive. He has a joker in his pocket: Laurent Berger, the previous boss of the CFDT, on whom “Camba” continues to guess regardless of the refusal opposed by the particular person involved. “Berger would be to the presidential election what Glucksmann is to the European elections. This is the social democratic hypothesis,” explains Jean-Christophe Cambadélis
Like all socialists against the Nupes, “Kostas” (his identify on the OCI) is aware of nicely that Mélenchon will stand on the highway to social democracy. His outdated Trotskyist adversary, whom he has continued to confront since their tender pupil years, will run for a fourth presidential election, there is no such thing as a doubt in his eyes. “He knows that he will never be President of the Republic, but he wants to be the leader of the opposition to Marine Le Pen,” analyzes Jean-Christophe Cambadélis. Half a century after their debut in politics, the 2 ex-Lambertists are nonetheless combating one another. They will most likely by no means let go of the ramp. “They are the same: they eat, they sleep, they live politics,” says François Hollande of them. Expert phrase.
https://www.lepoint.fr/politique/jean-christophe-cambadelis-melenchon-ne-veut-pas-etre-president-mais-leader-de-l-opposition-a-marine-le-pen-30-03-2024-2556335_20.php