France: The left rejects Indalgo’s proposal for a joint candidate

Prospective French left-wing candidates today rejected a call by Socialist Party candidate Anne Indalgo to rally behind a candidate, splitting the left, leaving her with little chance of winning the election.

Indalgo, who is also the mayor of Paris, had warned a day earlier that if the left did not unite “it will not be able to continue to exist in our country.”

Opponents say she is trying to revive a weakened campaign and have rejected her proposal to hold a by-election to select a left-wing candidate.

“Ann Indalgo has realized the impasse in which her candidacy has reached, the difficulty she faces in advancing her ideas … and she wants to come out of the impasse with a surprise,” said Green candidate Yannick Zando, rejecting the idea.

Polls put Indalgo at about 5% of the vote, placing him behind Zando and left-wing Jean-Luc Melanson.

Communist claimant Fabien Roussell also rejected Indalgo’s proposal, as did Melanson’s close political allies.

The poor performances of the left-wing claimants in the polls reflect the tendency towards the right that the country has been recording in recent years.

Opinion polls suggest incumbent Emanuel Macron, a center-right politician with a far-right social policy, coming first in the race for the presidency in an effort to attract conservative voters at a time when immigration, security, national identity and job insecurity occupy the minds of voters.

Two far-right candidates together hold 35% of the vote and the popularity of Valerie Pekres, the person chosen by the conservative “Republicans”, jumped after the announcement last weekend.

These four occupy the first places in the polls. Only two candidates make it to the second round.

Source: AMPE