"La Meute", an investigation that threatens to tarnish La France Insoumise

Two journalists spent two years investigating the rebellious machine serving a leader's ultimate presidential ambition.

Its name says a lot about what La France insoumise has become over time: La Meute . Journalists Charlotte Belaïch ( Libération) and Olivier Pérou ( Le Monde ) have been investigating for two years and collecting testimonies from those who know leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon perfectly, or who have crossed paths with him and his followers. Le Monde is publishing some excerpts on Monday, May 5. A dive into the rebellious system, totally opaque, a machine devoted to the leader where differences have no place - at the risk of being sidelined.

Pillars have paid the price, like the academic Charlotte Girard in 2019, then more recently the lifelong friend Alexis Corbière, Raquel Garrido, Clémentine Autain, François Ruffin... A machine where violence is invited between rebellious executives, between deputies, in the messaging loops, with fierce, even cruel exchanges, to be discovered in the book. Example, in Le Monde , with this message from the deputy of the North Ugo Bernalicis, intended for those who, before the purge, began to make their discomfort heard, Clémentine Autain, Alexis Corbière... Following a meeting between deputies, muscular, which was leaked to the press, where the young rebellious shouted at them "Get lost!" , he wrote: "So, you pains? Are we playing the victims because I said what I thought of you internally? You make me vomit even more (…) I'm nice, I said: 'Get lost' to give you the opportunity to live your line with a minimum of dignity and loyalty. But if it means transforming this slogan into 'Let's fire them', I'm ready for it."

This investigation shows the total devotion that the rebels owe to the tribune . Our colleagues recount how the latter maintains a court phenomenon, with the right to sit next to him at the table as a reward. A man who, to preserve the loyalty of the troops, blows hot and cold, sets one against the other, even his most faithful lieutenants Manuel Bompard and Paul Vannier.

We discover the role of the woman he shares his life with, Sophia Chikirou, who is under investigation in the 2017 campaign accounts affair. Jean-Luc Mélenchon lets her internally benefit from her status as "the leader's wife" - this is the term used in the investigation that promises revelations about the MP, described as brutal, humiliating and who even enjoys being compared to Mao Zedong's widow.

A book that also addresses anti-Semitism, with one question: how did the child of Tangier, a historic Zionist according to one of his close associates, manage to make so many missteps since October 7? To equate French Jews with Israeli politics? To endorse the whistles against his political son, the socialist Jérôme Guedj, who is Jewish? The investigation is in any case embarrassing enough for LFI, according to information from franceinfo, to move heaven and earth to get its hands on it in recent days. La Meute , to be discovered Wednesday, May 7, at Flammarion.