Investigative book on Jean-Luc Mélenchon: Raquel Garrido denounces the "Stalinist methods" of the LFI leader

An investigation that has rekindled criticism of Jean-Luc Mélenchon. In La Meute , journalists Charlotte Belaïch (Libération) and Olivier Pérou (Le Monde) give an inside look at La France Insoumise , a movement where intimidation and threats have become commonplace .

"Human relations in this Mélenchonist world are detestable and brutal," declared former LFI MP Raquel Garrido , a victim of the "purge" that drove figures like Alexis Corbières and François Ruffin from the party, on the BFMTV set.

Excluded from nominations for the June 2024 legislative elections for having voiced internal criticism, the former elected representative of Seine-Saint-Denis points the finger at the "witchcraft trials" launched by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, whose "Stalinist methods" she denounces.

Evoking the rebellious leader's harshness, Raquel Garrido confirms, as revealed by the authors of the investigative book, that Jean-Luc Mélenchon once told her to "shut up" during a party meeting, "in front of everyone."

Still according to the revelations of La Meute , the former rebel was nicknamed internally "Merkava" after the name of the Israeli army tanks, Jean-Luc Mélenchon judging her "naive about the influence of the Jewish community in France".

Regarding possible anti-Semitism within the party , Raquel Garrido insists that "La France Insoumise is not anti-Semitic." But "Jean-Luc Mélenchon must be prevented from harming LFI and the Popular Front by these little words that do not represent" the movement, she insists.

"I am a demonstration of these brutal methods," declared his partner Alexis Corbière from the National Assembly. A former right-hand man of the Insoumis leader, he was not retained in the Insoumis leadership at the end of 2022, nor was he invested by the party in the 2024 legislative elections.

"Jean-Luc was my leader, I was a foot soldier, a henchman, call it what you will. I was convinced he was the best. I knew him intimately, I saw him in all states. He has magnificent sides and darker sides," says in La Meute the man who now sits with the ecologists in the Assembly.

This book tells us that the thirty-year-old affair between the two men ended abruptly with a text message from the rebel leader: "Never speak to me again."

Jean-Luc Mélenchon's entourage had explained that they were wary of the emergence of different sensitivities that could come closer to the "socialist currents," his former party.

But according to this investigation, the maneuver would be more of a mode of operation in which the septuagenarian "distributes good graces", "flatters" then "ignores" before excommunicating.

Asked about this investigative book, national coordinator Manuel Bompard denounced it as a "collage of gossip and false information." "We are not critics of fiction. We are members of parliament. I have detected inaccurate information," he added after a meeting with François Bayrou .