Legislative 2022: in Marseille, Manuel Bompard in footsteps of Jean-Luc Mélenchon

Nut candidate in the 4th district of Bouches-du-Rhône, the European deputy La France Insoumise (LFI) surfs on the inheritance of the outgoing and on his presidential score.

by

“Did you vote for dad? Now, have to vote for son!” Patrick Arranz is very proud of his slogan. “I heard it in the street, I found it well,” laughs the 64 -year -old “rebellious” activist, who regularly takes him between snacks, bazaars and taxhones. Since the beginning of the afternoon, Wednesday, May 25, he has been activated within the procession that accompanies Manuel Bompard and her substitute, Kalila Sevin, in the streets of Belsunce, between Saint-Charles and Canebière station, in the heart of Marseille.

The European deputy LFI, 36 years for two months, is the candidate of the new Ecological and Social People’s Popular Union (Nuts) in this 4 e district of Bouches-du-Rhône. A territory of 60,000 voters, which covers the first three districts of the city, where 39 % of the population lives below the poverty line, and more mixed neighborhoods, such as the plain or the Julien course. At the end of a false suspense, Manuel Bompard, who has just spent ten years between Toulouse and Paris, was appointed, on May 13, by the outgoing deputy Jean-Luc Mélenchon as his heir. “Fiston” is him. “I do not feel this succession as a weight”, assures the one who assumes the “emotional bond” which attaches him to the leader “rebellious”, of which he directed the presidential campaigns. “I was 20 when I knew her. And when you see yourself every day for several months, the relationship cannot be that activist or professional. She becomes personal,” he sums up.

An “important personality”

To explain his new Marseille establishment, the European deputy, originally from the Loire, speaks of a “personal life project”, says that he occupies a pied-à-terre in the basket, near the Old Port, And evokes, for the anecdote, his love of local rap. He met “for almost three hours” the left mayor, Benoît Payan (Marseille spring), and plunges into his campaign from Wednesday to Sunday, leaving the other days to his national activity. “I do not feel offbeat with the local spirit,” said the mathematician, to whom we lend a very Cartesian approach to politics. “And then it was the activists who also offered me to be there,” he recalls. In the streets of Belsunce, Kalila Sevin confirms. “We wanted an important personality of LFI for our constituency. We asked Manuel”, traces this math teacher at the Thiers high school, “rebellious” for five years.

Manuel Bompard wanders in the district of Belsunce in Marseille, with his substitute Kalila Sevin, May 25, 2022. Olivier Monge / Myop for “The World ”

The dimension of the candidate NUPES also defused the local potential. “Everyone has validated in the name of the higher interest,” said the deputy mayor, Marie Batoux, who knew Manuel Bompard at the National Bureau of the Left Party. Thus, Kevin Vacher, an activist revealed within the collective of November 5, after the collapses of the rue d’Aubagne, abandoned his campaign, launched under a citizen label, to support him. “Manuel Bompard is committed to bringing our bill to combat unworthy housing,” he explains. Sunday, May 29, a common meeting at the Marseille Nuts candidates will validate this project.

You have 52.63% of this article to read. The continuation is reserved for subscribers.