The left seals the agreement for the legislative elections in France and complicates Macron’s strategy | International

The French left, from the eurosceptic populists of Jean-Luc Mélenchon to the European social democrats of Raphaël Glucksmann, will go to the early legislative elections with a common program that includes a commitment to Ukraine and the lowering of the retirement age, one of the most controversial and unpopular reforms of the Macronist Government. The agreement, presented this Friday at a joint appearance by the heads of the allied forces in Paris, is bad news for Emmanuel Macron and his candidates, who face a very complicated campaign after the president, by surprise, dissolved the National Assembly and brought forward the elections given the clear victory of Marine Le Pen’s National Regroupment (RN) in the European elections.

Macron hoped that the divisions on the left and the irritation of many progressives with the radicalism and personalism of Mélenchon and La Francia Insumisa (LFI) would lead them to join his candidacy for the legislative elections on June 30 and July 7. He has not achieved it.

“This new popular front is not only a grouping of political forces, it is a new, unprecedented grouping that goes further and unites political organizations, but also associations and groups, with the support of union, associative and world personalities. of arts and culture,” declared the national coordinator of LFI, Manuel Bompard, during the joint appearance of the main people responsible for the left-wing agreement, where Glucksmann, however, was not present, nor was Mélenchon. “They said that we were irreconcilable, but when the essential thing is at stake, we are showing that we are always there,” said the general secretary of the Socialist Party (PS), Olivier Faure. In the legislative elections of June 30 and July 7, “either the extreme right wins or we win,” said the leader of the environmentalists, Marine Tondelier. Everyone has accused Macron of being directly responsible for the extreme right being “at the gates of power.”

The agreement of the so-called “new popular front”, an allusion to the anti-fascism of the 1930s, is made up of 150 measures that, according to its signatories, represent a “total break with Macron’s policy to respond to the immediate needs of the population and the environment”, starting with the revocation of the main economic reforms of the current Government, from the pension reform to that of unemployment insurance and, also, an increase in the minimum wage, among others. It also includes demands that were inalienable for Glucksmann and the socialists. Among them, “unconditional support” for Ukraine and European construction. Also the commitment to “truly fight against anti-Semitism”, an important point for the moderate left after some statements by Mélenchon criticized for being ambiguous.

On another sensitive issue that has caused strong disagreements, the conflict in the Middle East, the agreement includes, under pressure from the more moderate forces, the desire to “act for the release of the hostages” held by Hamas. Furthermore, the October 7 attack that sparked the conflict in Gaza is clearly described as a “Hamas terrorist massacre.”

At the same time, it places Mélenchon’s La Francia Insumisa (LFI) in a clearly dominant position in the “new popular front”, since it will be by far the party with the most candidates in the distribution of seats, 229. But although LFI starts with a greater number of constituencies where they can fight for a seat in the National Assembly, contrary to what happened in 2022, now the other parties of the popular front add, together, potentially more seats: to the PS and Plaza Pública (Glucksmann’s formation) 175 constituencies have been assigned to them, 92 to the environmentalists and 50 to the Communist Party.

The program was presented in detail this Friday, but some politicians from the parties that signed it (LFI, socialists, environmentalists and communists, as well as Plaza Pública) had advanced some details, such as the repeal of Macron’s controversial pension reform and the reduction of the retirement age from 64 to 60 years. Another confirmed measure is the increase in salaries at the rate of inflation and the blocking of prices for essential products. Issues on which there are no common positions are not detailed, such as nuclear energy or NATO, as some media have highlighted.

The Minister of Economy and Finance, the macronist Bruno Le Maire, described the left’s program as “total delirium”, and assured that it is “the guarantee of mass unemployment and exit from the European Union.” Skipping the other members of the left alliance, the Minister of the Interior, Gérald Darmanin, has equated the programs of La France Insoumise and Le Pen’s National Regroupment to describe them as an “economic drama that is going to ruin France.” His project is “impossible to carry out” and demonstrates “demagoguery at all levels,” he declared on the social network X.

In an interview with the France Inter radio network, MEP Glucksmann, whose list in the European elections surpassed that of the Melenchonistas and was very little behind the Macronist, justified this Friday his support for the agreement by the need to avoid a majority far right. “It is our historical responsibility,” he summarized. “The only thing that matters,” he added, is “that the RN does not win the legislative elections and govern the country.” It is, he stressed, a “fight to the death against the extreme right.” Former president François Hollande has also approved the agreement, which for center-left voters may be a guarantee of moderation.

There is no agreement, for now, on who would be prime minister if the left wins. According to those responsible, the agreement is that the party that wins the greatest number of deputies in the elections will be able to propose a name. Although there are no names on the table yet, there are red lines: Glucksmann has ruled out Mélenchon and has proposed Laurent Berger, former secretary general of the moderate CFDT union and figure of French social democracy.

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