“Unity!”: The Fête de l’Humanité, the left called to unity

When asked to talk about the Festival , his words flow together, clash. "Conviviality" , "friends" , "confrontation" ... But when the question of the political context comes up, between tensions on the left and the rise of the extreme right, it is a cry from the heart that comes: "We need a collective alternative!"

Frédéric Le Merrer, 55, a retired railway worker and PCF activist , has been a regular at the event for thirty-five editions. His eyes are tired, his features drawn. This is the lot of the pillars of the event, who run the stands: they don't sleep much. But his smile wins. "It's the most beautiful place in the world, " he proclaims to justify his devotion. "People talk to each other, meet, divisions are transformed into exchanges, differences are crossed and abolished. Distances are shortened." Especially between the left-wing forces, who are by no means irreconcilable.

In front of the stand of the PCF federation of Gard, a Karl Marx lookalike, white-bearded and gray-suited, plays town crier. "Individuals only constitute a class to the extent that they have to support a common struggle against another class!" he shouts. Otherwise, he continues, "they confront each other as enemies in competition."

This is precisely the whole point of Églantine, 23, a "non-card-carrying activist" for unity, "tired of divisions over a comma." In three days, she attended all the round tables capable of "bringing things together." "I have the impression that we found a breath of fresh air this weekend ," she judges. "In recent weeks, the media only pointed out the divisions. But now, "unity" is regaining strength."

A return to grace was evident throughout the weekend. From every aisle emanates the desire to move forward together. And for good reason: last year, in the same place, members of the New Popular Front (NFP) were acclaimed for their ability to form a united front against the National Rally. A year later, it's their strategic differences that set them apart. Should we claim Matignon? Negotiate with Macron's party? Demand a dissolution? Push for the resignation of the President of the Republic?

On the Agora stage this Saturday, several representatives of left-wing parties are invited to debate their analyses and positions, as France plunges back into a regime crisis. At the microphone, the rebellious deputy Hadrien Clouet addresses in particular the first secretary of the Socialist Party, Olivier Faure , present at his side. "Let us be careful not to slip into bourgeois union and the risk of merging with a rotten Macronism, " he tells him, thereby promising an rebellious candidacy in the presidential election, whatever happens.

A premature exit, in the eyes of the public, who booed as a call to order and repeated a simple word over and over: "Unity!" The desire to see the left move forward together has not eroded, relayed by François Ruffin and Marine Tondelier.

"Let's stop fabricating two projects , " adds Stéphane Peu, leader of the Communist deputies in the Assembly . "I have a date in mind: February 12, 1934. Two large demonstrations were to be held. That of the Socialists on one side and the Communists on the other. And under pressure from the people, the two demonstrations converged and this gave rise to the beginnings of the Popular Front which won in 1936. If we persist in dividing ourselves, we are being inconsistent!"

Later in the afternoon, the founder of La France Insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, during his meeting, paid tribute to the communists for holding the Festival and many common struggles but did not spare the socialists, guilty, according to him, of having "capitulated" by breaking with the NFP.

"This alliance has been completely destroyed by those who signed the paper!" he exclaimed, before renewing a "federative offer proposal" : a "coalition based on the NFP program to all those who want it to open the discussion now."

A clear appeal to the communists and the ecologists whom they salute for having "voted for all the motions of censure, like the rebels" . A way for him to put an end to the idea that there would be "the whole left on one side and the scabies of LFI on the other" . "There are two blocs: that of rupture and that of support" , he insists, visibly anxious to put the PS on the index. "Our disagreements are a richness" , observed a little earlier Fabien Roussel, national secretary of the PCF, pleading for his part for a "new agreement on the left" with candidacies to be negotiated by department, without excluding the socialists.

Targeted by LFI, and booed for a time by part of the Agora audience... Olivier Faure tried throughout the weekend to quell the criticism, particularly about his desire to reach Matignon. "I would like to understand ," he said to the most vehement. "Who here is not ready to govern? Who here wants to hand over power to Macronie? Who is not ready to implement the Zucman tax or repeal the pension reform? We don't have time to wait. The left has only ever won when it has governed."

"Worried" about certain divisions, the national secretary of the Ecologists, Marine Tondelier , confided to her activists gathered in their stand, her weariness of seeing "too much airtime" taken up "to criticize each other without talking about others . " "If there is a dissolution, we will have to look the voters straight in the eye and tell them: "We are leaving divided because we preferred this little game to unity," she warned . In this case, the voters will punish us and they will be right."

Could this popular pressure observed during the Festival mark a turning point in relations between the different left-wing forces? Michèle, 72, retired from La Poste, is the daughter of socialists. A former communist activist before joining the rebellious banks and moving away from them solely for community involvement, she says she is irritated by the "tackles between friends."

But she hopes: her old loves will be reunited soon. "Look at the crowds in the aisles ," she enthuses, waving her red keffiyeh. "The people of the left want a refuge. They want to come together to fight." They want unity, a break, and power. Everything, right now.