“These European elections are also an opportunity to prepare for the post-Macron era” assures Manon Aubry, head of the LFI list

Manon Aubry, tête de liste LFI pour les élections européennes. MAXPPP – OLIVIER HOSLET

The head of the list of La France insoumise in the European elections is taking part this Sunday, April 14, in a meeting in Montpellier, at Corum, alongside Manuel Bompard and Rima Hassan.

After 2019, you are once again the head of the LFI list for the European elections. How, in a very specific context, does this campaign differ from the previous one ?

Today, in 2024, we have been under the power of Emmanuel Macron for seven years. Which, including with these alliances at the European level, imposes a form of social racket on us.

It has materialized singularly in recent weeks with a Lépine course of the worst ideas to pick the pockets of the French: Monday, increase in VAT, Tuesday, freezing of retirement pensions, Wednesday, reform of unemployment insurance, on Thursday, he attacks the status of civil servants, on Friday, they will cut a little more in hospitals…

That is the policy of Emmanuel Macron and the European Commission who want to impose the worst austerity cure ever known on our continent and particularly in France.

This tense social context could influence the result of this election ?

In this explosive context, these elections are also an opportunity to prepare for the post-Macron era, to know whether we want to leave the keys to the country to the Macronists who are damaging public service and our social protection, or to the Macron. rsquo;extreme right, with its racist and xenophobic policies. Or do we want to have a combative left that puts solidarity, the defense of our public service, the blocking of prices for basic necessities, etc., on the political agenda?

Do you still regret that the left is leaving in scattered order for the Europeans ?

I regret that the other left-wing political groups have chosen division.

From the start I proposed a common list of Nupes, without even making the head of the list a prerequisite. To, together, on the basis of the Nupes program which made it possible to elect more than 150 deputies to the National Assembly, draw an alternative and compete with the extreme right. Or even win these elections.

I am launching an appeal to the millions of orphans of the Nupes: we want to continue to unite on this program, when others have chosen division or fragmentation. Which is quite irresponsible when we have the extreme right at the gates of power.

The international context is also disrupted. What do you think are the main issues in the EU-wide election??

I will mention three. The first: how do we get out of austerity rules? And rather than weakening our public services, we are calling on those who got rich during the crisis, the super- profits, and the greatest fortunes.

Second issue: ending free trade agreements. I chair the only group in the European Parliament that has never given any law to these agreements, which put our agriculture and our industry in unfair competition with products from all over the world. Whereas we can produce them here.

Third issue: favor the protection of common goods, such as energy, rather than market rules.

In the campaign, what role does Jean-Luc Mélenchon play ? Too present ? Not enough ?< /p>

He is present on the list, in the penultimate place, to push it, and give it strength. He scored 22% in the presidential election, he created Nupes.

So the goal is to build and rely on the strengths of LFI. And to look for new ones.
The presence of Rima Hassan, on the LFI list, caused controversy due to some of her positions on the Israeli-Palestinian conflict…

She is a Franco-Palestinian peace activist, specialist in international law, and who has constantly called for a ceasefire in the Gaza Strip and sanctions against the government of Israel. And it calls for a two-state solution so that Israelis and Palestinians can live peacefully side by side.

This is the voice that we will continue to carry in this campaign. In a very tense international context where, more than ever, France and the EU must make the voice of peace heard.

What did you learn from your first mandate as an MEP? You enjoyed the experience?

A lot. I was fortunate to be the youngest group president in the history of Parliament, and to achieve significant victories at the head of my group. That in favor of platform workers, which offers them social protection. And the one on the duty of vigilance of multinationals.

I was also able to see from the inside the power and influence of lobbies. And lobbyists, or foreign interference, like vampires, hate the light. I understood that the European institutions were sick of this opacity. I am making this fight for transparency a major element of my fights in the European Parliament. It would be nice if one day ethics could finally take precedence over money.

Meeting of La France insoumise with the head of the list Manon Aubry, this Sunday April 14 at the Corum in Montpellier, from 3 p.m. I subscribe to read more