Emanuel Macron doesn’t like that: The left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon forged an electoral alliance with the Greens for the parliamentary elections in France. Socialists and communists are also invited. The aim is to make Mélenchon prime minister.
Six weeks before the parliamentary elections in France, left-wing populist Jean-Luc Mélenchon forged an electoral alliance with the Greens. Mélenchon’s party LFI (La France Insoumise) and the main eco-party (Europe Ecologie-Les Verts, EELV) reached compromises on EU issues and the distribution of constituencies during the night. For an even larger left alliance, both parties also want to get the socialists and communists on board.
“This is extraordinary, but now the voters have to turn it into a historic victory” in the parliamentary elections in June, Julien Bayou, chairman of the EELV, commented on the BFMTV broadcaster on the agreement on the electoral alliance “ecological and social people’s union”. “We want a common banner with all left forces to form a majority,” he added.
The goal: a left-wing majority in the National Assembly
The alliance is intended to help the left-wing populist Mélenchon to become Prime Minister by winning a majority in the National Assembly. If this plan works, it would make the re-elected head of state Emmanuel Macron’s second term in office much more difficult.
LFI and the Greens fought bitterly over issues such as the position on the EU. Both parties have now agreed that EU regulations may be disregarded if they conflict with the program – but only when it comes to economic and budgetary issues. Any escalation towards leaving the EU is prohibited, as the Greens had called for.
According to the agreement, the Greens are entitled to 100 constituencies, of which they could win 30. The division of the constituencies was also one of the contentious issues in the negotiations on an electoral alliance.
Talks with the Socialists (PS) should be resumed at the LFI party headquarters from Monday afternoon. After the PS had previously negotiated bilaterally with LFI, the Greens will now take part.
Socialist candidate Anne Hidalgo got just 1.8 percent in the first round of the presidential election, but the party has fairly strong roots in rural areas. Within the PS, however, there is considerable resistance to an alliance with the left-wing populist.
The Socialists’ Fear of Disappearance
The French ex-president François Hollande had warned of the “disappearance” of the socialists in view of the negotiations. The demands of LFI to disregard European treaties in individual cases, to withdraw from NATO and not to deliver weapons to Ukraine are not compatible with the attitude of the socialists. Even retirement at 60 cannot support his party.
It is important to listen to each other, said PS party leader Olivier Faure on Sunday. “I don’t know if there will be an agreement, but I wish it would,” he said.
Talks with the Communist Party were scheduled to begin in the early afternoon. Their boss Fabien Roussel told the broadcaster Franceinfo that he hoped that an agreement could be reached later in the day. “There is no Plan B, there is only Plan A: stand up and create this great left-wing alliance to finally take revenge for this presidential election.”
Mélenchon is aiming for a majority in the general elections on June 12th and 19th. He wants to be prime minister after surprisingly strong performance in the first round of the French presidential election. With around 22 percent, he ended up behind second-placed Marine Le Pen and narrowly missed entering the head of state’s runoff election.
Source: Stern
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