Source > International Viewpoint

On 12 and 19 June, important legislative elections take place. For Macron, elected with historically low scores, the objective is to maintain a majority that will allow him to continue serving the ruling class. Behind the announcement of important priorities in favour of purchasing power or health, are in reality new social setbacks, notably the retirement age. The old right-wing LR and the extreme right are not opposed to Macron, they simply wish to keep or extend their place in the hemicycle, hoping to reap the rotten fruits of Macronism’s anti-social and authoritarian policies.

Weakening them, including through the elections, is therefore an important issue in order to put our social camp, the world of work, in a better position to develop mobilizations, to build a class-struggle left, towards an anti-capitalist alternative. We must try to defeat Macron, the right and the extreme right, by getting as many as possible left-wing MPs elected, who break with anti-social and liberal policies. We therefore support candidates for a class-struggle left, breaking with social liberalism, to make the working classes heard and give them confidence in their ability to mobilize.

This is why, in the vast majority of constituencies, we are calling for support and votes for the candidates of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union ((NUPES). In the more than 70 constituencies where NPA committees exist, this support ranges from a simple public call to vote for the local NUPES candidate to the participation of anti-capitalist activists in the common campaign. This is the case, for example, in the east of Paris with Danielle Simonnet ^[1] and Sarah Legrain, or in Moselle with Charlotte Leduc and Lisa Lahore, as well as in many other places where the NPA is campaigning with NUPES material or with its own material calling for a vote. This support does not silence our criticisms and above all our proposals for a programme of rupture, based on incursions into private capitalist property, the fight against all forms of repression, and so that the coalition is not just an electoral union but serves to build social struggles.

In other constituencies, faced with candidates labelled NUPES but who come from the Socialist Party, or even former Macronists, we are campaigning, where they exist, around alternative candidacies, from the NPA or from unitive collectives bringing together anti-capitalist, social movement, feminist, anti-racist or anti-fascist activists… Thus, the NPA is involved in the candidacy of Raphaël Arnault, former spokesperson of the Young Antifascist Guard, in the second constituency of the Rhône, against Hubert Julien-Lafferière, the ex-Macronist who came back via Génération Écologie and was officially invested by the NUPES. ^[2] This is also the case in the third constituency of Charente, with the candidacy of Alexandre Raguet, facing Marie-Pierre Noël, PS nominated by the NUPES, and Jérôme Lambert, a reactionary dissident PS.

In six constituencies (Hauts-de-Seine 1-3-5-11, Gironde 3 and Moselle 3), the majority of the local section of the NPA chose to present candidates who were not in line with the national orientation of the NPA and consequently not validated by the leadership body. In these places, against these candidacies, we call for the election of the candidates presented by the NUPES, notably Loïc Prud’homme (LFI) in Gironde and Elsa Faucillon (PCF) in Hauts-de-Seine, both outgoing MPs.

Finally, there are a few particular constituencies where, depending on situations linked to the place taken by the French state, its oppressive policy in the face of national or colonial facts, the NPA calls for a vote for candidates defending a project of social emancipation and autonomy or independence. This is the case in Guyana (Jean-Victor Castor, MDES candidate in the 1st constituency, and Christophe Yanuwana Pierre, independent candidate in the 2nd), in Martinique (Marcel Sellaye, candidate for RESPE in the second constituency) and in the Basque Country (with support for the three candidates presented by Euskal Herria Bai in the 4th, 5th and 6th constituencies).

Montreuil, 31 May 2022

‘Translated by International Viewpoint from l’Anticapitaliste.

FOOTNOTES

[1] See ““The priority is to win against Macron’s candidate, but also against the PS candidate, who broke the agreement here“”.

[2] See “Raphaël Arnault, the antifa who wants to be an MP”.

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