Jean-Luc Mélenchon defends his position despite criticism

Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of La France insoumise, during a press conference, June 15, 2022, in Paris.

The leader of La France insoumise (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, criticized on the left for having qualified as « provocation » Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan, maintained and renewed her remarks on Saturday August 6, reaffirming that” there [avait] only one China”.

In a Thursday blog posthe had estimated, in the midst of intense tensions between Beijing and Taipei, that “The Chinese will settle the problem among themselves”. In a new post, saturdayhe says to himself « I freaked out » by the “very strange reactions” and the “screams of turmoil” of his critics, while “we must not want a new war front”.

“What kind of fear reigns over the debate? Where is the active president of Franco-Chinese friendships, Mr. Raffarin? And the signatories of the UMP’s cooperation agreement with the Chinese Communist Party? And Fabien Roussel [secrétaire national du PCF], after his recent friendship trip to China? The smugness of the former and the frightened caution of the latter dismay me. »

Read also: Mélenchon takes over Beijing’s position on Taiwan and divides the left

Claiming a “non-aligned” France

And to reiterate his arguments: “I have only repeated the constant doctrine of our country (France, let us remember) since 1965 with regard to China. (…) There is only one China”, “this is also regulated by international agreements accepted by our country and members of the UN”et : “China and the United States pledge to respect each other’s sovereignty and territorial unity”.

He also points out “the super cold reception received since his provocation by Mme Nancy Pelosi in Tokyo and Seoul ». The former presidential candidate wonders if the people who criticize him “think that millennial China will bow to their posturing”and points to a risk of seeing Beijing “enter into closer convergence with Russia” while forming “a more homogeneous bloc between the USA and Europe ‘whatever the cost’ in terms of enslavement and the risk of war”.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Nancy Pelosi freshly received in Tokyo and Seoul, embarrassed by the consequences of her visit to Taiwan

“Macron’s France has given up playing a role in this world game”he also laments, advocating a “non-alignment” of Paris, at the heart of its vision of international relations. While the Chinese Embassy in France thanked him in a tweetJean-Luc Mélenchon defends himself by republishing a sentence from his previous post: “Whatever the scope and level of criticism that may be leveled at the Chinese government, we must refuse to condone war on China to satisfy US views on Taiwan. »

Dissensions within the Nupes

Within the left alliance Nupes, the national secretary of Europe Ecology-The Greens (EELV), Julien Bayou, had denounced Friday “a rather dated vision” et “a real cynicism in terms of geopolitics” from Mr. Mélenchon, while the boss of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure, judged that if “the opportunity of Nancy Pelosi’s visit to Taiwan [était] debatable, the desire of the Taiwanese to live in a democracy is not..

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers The impossible retirement of Jean-Luc Mélenchon

The episode confirms that, united in July and August during the votes in Parliament on purchasing power measures, the members of the Nupes are not on the diplomatic files, as they had moreover recorded it in the agreement sealing their alliance in May before the legislative elections of June. The invasion of Ukraine by Russia in February had already highlighted the differences of opinion between environmentalists demanding arms deliveries to the Ukrainians or “rebellious” defending a “non-alignment” on Russia or the United States.

On Tuesday, the dissensions were reflected in the vote of the National Assembly for the ratification of the protocols of accession of Sweden and Finland to NATO in the context of the war in Ukraine: the PS and ecologist deputies voted for , the LFI deputies against. Of the “opposing worldviews”a noted the PS MEP / Public Square Raphaël Glucksmannwhich castigates that embodied by Jean-Luc Mélenchon whose “anti-Americanism” is “built as a compass” et “led to espouse the cause of tyrants”.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Nupes unity put to the test of voting on purchasing power: “We all say the same thing with different music”

France “sticks to its one-China policy”

The exit of the “rebellious” leader also turns out to be blessed bread for the dissident socialists who had refused to see the PS ally with LFI in Nupes. Nupes is “an alliance of opportunism without line!” »points to the PS mayor of Le Mans, Stéphane Le Foll, judging “healthy” the ” debate “ opened by Mr. Mélenchon, because it is an opportunity for the left to “remain internationalist, European, and above all not non-aligned” as LFI advocates.

In the presidential majority, the LRM / Renaissance MEP, Nathalie Loiseau, denounces the positions taken “scandalous” by Jean-Luc Melenchon. “The one-China policy is everyone’s policy, no one disputes it”most “it is not, but then not at all, what your leader wrote”has she launched on Twitter to Manuel Bompardright arm of Mr. Mélenchon.

Read also: Article reserved for our subscribers Faced with the Chinese military threat, Taiwan chooses asymmetric warfare

France confirmed Thursday through the voice of its Minister for Foreign Affairs, Catherine Colonna, that it “sticks to its one-China policy”while emphasizing that “the visit of the president or the speaker of the American House of Representatives is not without precedent” in Taiwan, and that” in any case “elle “must not be used as a pretext for China to escalate measures that would increase tension”.

The World with AFP

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