Editorial. By supporting the "Block Everything" movement, La France Insoumise hopes to capitalize on the protests at all costs.

Jean-Luc Mélenchon and the rebels have decided to support the "Block Everything" movement, which calls for France to be shut down on September 10, even if the details of this call are still somewhat unclear.

The left is trying to appropriate the social back-to-school season, and in this little game, La France Insoumise often moves faster than the others. The first political party to draw its weapon on Sunday, Jean-Luc Mélenchon emerges from his summer torpor to support the "Block Everything" movement of September 10. Any opportunity is a good one. Too bad if no one really knows what it's about, or what this day will look like. The essential thing is elsewhere, in the symbolism. Tribune Jean-Luc Mélenchon is making his comeback. Starting Thursday, August 21, at the Amfis des Insoumis in Valence, he wants to put himself back at the center of the game, a year and a half before the presidential election. Last summer, at the same time, he called for the impeachment of Emmanuel Macron for the first time. Support for this "Block Everything" movement looks like good old-fashioned political exploitation!

The plot is a big one. "The Great Recovery," headlined the newspaper L'Opinion on Tuesday. But it's interesting to observe how the rebels justify themselves. Their coordinator, Manuel Bompard, said on France Info on Monday that he identified with the demands of this catch-all protest : the resignation of Emmanuel Macron, rejection of François Bayrou's savings plan, including the elimination of two public holidays, the convening of a Constituent Assembly, and the elimination of pension reform. They reject the idea that the "Block Everything" movement is being led by the far right. They see it as an opportunity: to find support, a little legitimacy from public opinion, from the grassroots, for their political action in the Assembly, with the tabling of a motion of censure as soon as the new term begins.

This support could risk weakening the movement by putting a target on its back, even though the "Block Everything" movement seems to hate political parties, claim its independence, and the lack of an identified leader. Jean-Luc Mélenchon doesn't care, even though he is so attached to the cult of personality. He is right on one point. It is also the role of the left to get in the wheel, in the wake of a citizen mobilization. Historically, its place is in the streets. As when the former presidential candidate called for support for the Yellow Vest movement.

Of course, it's far too early, in the middle of August, to really know what will happen. The protest equation still contains several unknowns. Will the virtual mobilization turn into concrete actions? So far, it's been very gaseous, nebulous, not to say fuzzy. Moreover, what are the real origins of this movement? Which seems, originally, to have its source in far-right circles. The National Rally hasn't said a word about it, leaving the field open to La France Insoumise to appear as the receptacle of anger.