despite this initial outreach to the greens, however, buffet's initiative to form a common group with the greens was ultimately rebuffed, ending the possibility of a "communist, republican and ecologist" group as envisaged by mamère. discussions between mamère, pcf deputy patrick braouezec, and miscellaneous left deputies including gérard charasse were briefly initiated with the apparent support of the leadership of the pcf, which sought to strengthen its position in the assembly and diminish troublemakers within it ranks; however, these ultimately came to no avail, with bocquet believing that an alliance with the greens would be unfeasible during the debates of the grenelle de l'environnement and legislation proposed as a result. maxime gremetz, ousted from the communist federation in the somme and antagonistic towards the national party, made conditional his membership of a parliamentary group contingent on his demand that he and the other communists in the somme excluded from the departmental federation be permitted to rejoin. with 18 total communist deputies, it was therefore necessary to seek two additional deputies for the formation of the group.