La France Insoumise (LFI), the electoral vehicle founded in 2016 by veteran left-wing leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is caught in an untimely internal power struggle. At a closed-door assembly on December 10, MP and “coordinator” Manuel Bompard unveiled the makeup of LFI’s new central committee, marking an organizational evolution as it adapts to its new position as the center of gravity on the French left.

Leveraging his close ties with Mélenchon, whose 2022 presidential campaign he directed, Bompard is maintaining a structure sticking to the centralism long embraced by his mentor. Decision-making power will be concentrated in weekly, twenty-one-member “coordinating committee” meetings, peopled largely by Mélenchon loyalists and figures he’s shepherded to the center stage of national politics.

Unbeholden to internal party democracy — the self-styled “movement” has no fees-paying members or system of grassroots leadership selection — the coordinating committee will remain largely autonomous in steering the party line and strategic direction. Bompard tellingly quipped to left-wing outlet Mediapart that “voting is not the alpha and omega of democracy,” as party insiders remark that decisions have always and will continue to be made by “consensus.”