Two irreconcilable lefts in the legislative elections in the Gers

June 10, 2022

Two programs and irreconcilable positions: in the Gers, a socialist, initially invested by Nupes, preferred to campaign solo and finds himself facing a rival LFI, at the risk of dispersing the voices of the left in the legislative elections.

On a small square in Eauze, in the land of Armagnac, David Taupiac poses alongside the president of the Occitanie region, Carole Delga, who came to support him in the 2nd constituency of the department, before the first round of June 12.

“I made the choice to exclude myself from this agreement to affirm my differences”, explains to AFP the candidate and mayor of Saint-Clar, who willingly bows to the exercise of selfies during a buffet bringing together activists .

For him, the “fracture lines” between the left embodied by Carole Delga – almost 60% re-elected in 2021 – and the New Popular, Ecological and Social Union (Nupes) led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon are “numerous”: ” secularism, Europe, international politics or apprehension of the business world”.

“We are both for companies and employees, a progressive left, which wants to change society in appeasement and not in hate speech”, says this 47-year-old aeronautical consultant.

Some 70 PS candidates in France, including 14 in Occitania, are campaigning like him outside the Nupes agreement bringing together the main left-wing forces, including the PS and EELV.

The particularity of the 2nd constituency of the Gers, represented since 2007 in the Assembly by the socialist Gisèle Biémouret, is that it was from the start reserved for the PS, offering the candidate Taupiac a comfortable place against 13 opponents.

“I’m not going to give up my commitments and moral values ??(…) to get into something that doesn’t suit me, even if I don’t get elected”, launches the city councilor, saying he is sure of be in the second round.

“I’m from here, not dissident,” says David Taupiac. Insisting on its local presence, he claims to be “in an ascending approach based on concerns on the ground”, while according to him, “the agreements (of Nupes, editor’s note) taken in Paris are in a descending logic which we are going quickly see the limits of consistency”.

Microphone in hand, in front of a pistachio-colored 2CV, Carole Delga insists: “David is this deputy close to the people who will be at the service of the population. He is the only one capable of beating the right and the far right”.

On the agreement of Nupes, the president of the region describes to AFP a project comprising “a lot of vagueness or omissions” with “unsatisfactory conditions”. She says she defends a “sincere, solid and credible” union, beyond an electoral calendar.

As for the chances of being elected for the candidates she supports, she does not comment. Yet it is this question that worries many voters, admitting to being “distraught” in the face of two left-wing candidates.

“There was still a national opportunity to come together to carry a different policy than the one we have been undergoing for five years,” said Fabrice Lamarque, a 49-year-old nurse during a demonstration against the closure of an office. post office in Auch.

This CGT trade unionist points to a “lost opportunity which weakens the progressive camp”.

Having come to lend her support, even if the Gers prefecture is not in her constituency, the LFI candidate invested by Nupes, Françoise Dubos, also deplores the situation.

“We ran into a real wall, which meant that at the last moment we launched our candidacy since this candidate totally refused the agreements”, says this 64-year-old public official, who has worked on the right and environmentalists. , before “finding (his) way” with the Insoumis.

The one who praises the “very specific measures” of Nupes on a national scale, “because it is neither the department nor the region that will solve all the societal problems”, is annoyed that the aspiration of “fellow citizens” to a union of the left has not been heard.

And she hopes that the “error” of the PS candidate will not cost her seat on the left in a constituency where LR Michel Gabas is a favorite on the right.