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6 months ago
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Manon Aubry, the top candidate of La France insoumise (LFI, The Left) for the 2024 EU elections, strongly criticised a divided left in the face of a far-right at the top of the polls during an exclusive interview for Euractiv.
Read the original interview in French here.
Just weeks away from the European Parliament elections, Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement national (RN, ID), led by Jordan Bardella, is leading the polls with 30% of the votes, according to Europe Elect’s latest data.
In January, when Aubry announced that she was the head of the LFI list for the EU elections, she called for a joint list of left-wing parties to try fighting the rise of the RN.
“When you’re a Member of the European Parliament, you know more than anyone else the extent to which the far right is hurting Europe. We see them governing in other countries like Italy or Sweden”, Aubry told Euractiv.
The other two left-wing parties in the race for EU elections, the Greens and the PS-Place publique party (S&D) refused her offer.
“The best non-aggressive pact would have been a joint list. I have proposed this on many occasions. I’ve even suggested that the head of the list should be a Green candidate”, she claimed.
“Some have preferred to fight the battle alone when we have an extreme right in our country with over 30% in the polls. I regret that they have chosen irresponsibility rather than unity”, she added.
In France, the PS-Place publique list, led by Raphaël Glucksmann, leads the left-wing polls. He has 12% of the votes, but he only made 6% in the last EU elections in 2019.
Glucksmann comes third in the polls after Emmanuel Macron’s party Besoin d’Europe, led by Valérie Hayer (17%) and Bardella’s RN (30%).
On the other hand, the French Greens fell in the polls with 7% of the votes, compared to 13% in 2019. LFI was given 7% of voting intentions in Juin 2024, compared to 6% in 2019.
“The social-democrat electorate seems to be changing candidates. As for LFI, we are doing better than in 2019”, analysed Aubry.
After the June EU elections’ outcome, Aubry said she would continue to contact other left-wing parties. “It’s the only way out of the duel between the extreme right and extreme liberalism.”
Ukraine should open negotiations with Putin.
To end the war in Ukraine, Aubry said she favoured Ukraine opening negotiations with Russia.
“The most effective way to build peace is through diplomacy. It is a fatal mistake to think that this war must end militarily, with one people crushing another”, she commented.
She suggested “opening a diplomatic channel by supporting Germany’s initiative to convene a peace conference on June 15 and 16”, in which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed his participation.
She also added that the first step should be securing the thirteen Ukrainian nuclear power plants in the midst of the war.
“The deployment of UN peacekeeping forces to protect these plants should open up a first channel of negotiation and, one step at a time, open up the possibility of securing certain areas in Ukraine”, she explained.
Aubry also added that the EU must continue to help Ukraine logistically and militarily, including cancelling Ukraine’s debt.
However, she is against sending French troops, as Macron suggested. “It’s irresponsible because it raises the risk of a confrontation between two nuclear powers, something we even managed to avoid during the Cold War”.
Enlargement
Aubry said her party was against the EU’s enlargement for now. “We are not in favour of any enlargement without prior social, fiscal, and environmental harmonisation.”
Using the example of Ukraine, where the minimum wage is less than €200 a month, she said it would create “immense unfair competition” for the rest of the EU.
However, she said this did not prevent the EU from showing solidarity and support.
“We demonstrated this by voting over €50 billion in aid to Ukraine. You don’t have to be a formal member of the European Union to receive the money”, she concluded.
(Clara Bauer-Babef | Euractiv.fr, edited by Alice Taylor)
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