"He wants a free hand": a former close associate of Mélenchon reflects on his ouster from LFI

As the release of the investigative book La meute approaches, written by two journalists who have dissected the excesses of the LFI system, François Cocq, a former member of Jean-Luc Mélenchon 's party, tells BFMTV about his ouster in 2018.

An exclusion mentioned in early 2019 in a tweet by the rebel leader broadcast on a news channel featuring François Cocq. In this incisive statement, Jean-Luc Mélenchon calls his colleague a "nationalist who has been banned from the movement."

This reaction referred in particular to the intervention of this former secretary general, whom the news channel had presented as the "national speaker" of the movement.

"He calls me a nationalist, I don't know what that term means to him," this former close friend of Jean-Luc Mélenchon recalled on the BFMTV set.

Shortly after his ouster, François Cocq published a blog post in which he recalled having denounced a "step backward" in LFI's strategy. Within the party, François Cocq admitted that he had already clashed with Jean-Luc Mélenchon on several issues. "I had fundamental disagreements with him, particularly on the issue of the Republic and secularism, which began to escalate between 2017 and 2018," he explained.

Particularly on the party line. The former LFI member wanted to "unite the people," while, according to him, the leader of the rebels wanted to adopt a line to "unite the left."

"If there are purges, such vertical practices (...) it is because Jean-Luc Mélenchon wants to have a free hand to turn the flagship very quickly," he continues on BFMTV.

The leadership of the left-wing party is notably the target of the investigative book on the LFI system, La meute , written by Charlotte Belaïch, journalist at Libération and Olivier Pérou, journalist at Le Monde, in bookstores on May 7.

This investigative book describes a political party entirely organized around the personality of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, where intimidation and threats are commonplace , according to several testimonies. A book which also returns to the evictions within the party, but also to the accusations of anti-Semitism targeting him.

"Mélenchon thinks he is safe from any accusation of anti-Semitism or anything else, given the words he may have said (...) he allows himself to try to ride a ridge line on this subject," François Cocq said on our channel.