What leads to the mobilization of the Left in France in the run-up to parliamentary elections

Of Costa Rapti

Partly a child of necessity and selfish calculations, partly a response to the expectations and pressures of a significant portion of the electorate, the rapprochement of the French left in the run-up to the June 12 parliamentary elections overturns the data in the country’s predominantly “political laboratory” Of Europe.

In a sense, of course, this combination of forces comes too late, as the multiplicity of competing candidates marginally deprived the main representative of the left, Jean-Luc Melanson, of the possibility of running in the second round of the presidential election, instead of Marin Le Pen.

Encouraged by his good fortune, however, Melanson said the day after tomorrow that he was continuing, turning his attention to the “third round”, with the explicit ambition to become Prime Minister of France, that is, to force the newly elected President Emanuel Macron to a “cohabitation”, one of those sought to prevent the adaptation of the term of the presidency to that of the National Assembly.

However, according to opinion polls, 56% of voters want just that, a “cohabitation” that will limit the power of the tenant of the Elysian Sea. “For voters on the left of the political spectrum, the far-right threat (stronger than ever, judging by the percentages of Le Pen and Eric Zemour) makes fragmentation a luxury, but also perpetual submission to a” one “. less evil “, as Macron has been pushed to its limits.

Hence, Melanson has been at the center of the whole effort, not only because with 22% of the first round he is able to dictate his terms to the Ecologists, the Communists and the Socialists, whose candidates were limited to less than 5 percent. %, 3% and 2% respectively, but mainly because his “transcendental”, populist leadership presence, in direct communication with a diverse, unorganized electoral base, exactly matches the state of mind of the “people of the Left”.

Not that the mechanisms do not play their role: equally their instinct of self-preservation and their power in places played a catalytic role in the developments, as the majority electoral system in two rounds, forced the avoidance of competitive candidacies in the same constituency. According to France24, the division gives about 100 constituencies to Green candidates, 70 to the Socialists and 50 to the Communist Party. The rest of the nominations obviously concern Melanson’s Rebellious France.

The initial agreement for the establishment of the “New Popular, Ecological and Social Unity” was announced, very symbolically, on May 3, the anniversary of the victory of the Popular Front in France in 1936. Two days later followed the accession of the Socialist Party, in the form of a historical revenge for Melanson, who left him in 2008.

In the case of the Socialists, the decision was made under the pressure of the new party generation and despite the recommendations of historical figures to the contrary, such as former President François Hollande and the former Secretary General. of the party of Jean-Christophe Campandelis, who announced his resignation. Despite the shrinking of this space, these vibrations reflect an element of wider importance: the programmatic disagreements of the participants in the new front, which are currently being pushed “under the rug”, in the momentum to gain a strong parliamentary presence.

As much as Rebellious France has stopped talking about leaving the euro, issues such as nuclear energy, the country’s position in NATO’s military, the war in Ukraine, mandatory sanitation measures and the Melanson proposal to establish a Sixth The French Republic, through a constitutional revision, is either silenced or approached by Socialists, Communists, Ecologists and Melanson in a very different way. And the question of the “next day” is not literary, as the fragmentation of the French (far) right in the parliamentary elections, makes the ambitions of the left sufficiently valid.