The New Popular Front and its strategy to win the elections in France

In four days, the left reached an electoral and programmatic agreement to break with Macron’s neo-liberal government and appears as the only alternative to avoid the triumph of the extreme right.

The New Popular Front, made up of La Francia Insumisa (LFI), the Socialist Party, the Ecologists and the French Communist Party, presented this afternoon on Friday, June 14, a program of 150 government measures. This front is also supported by other left-wing parties, associations, unions and members of civil society.

The unity achieved after arduous negotiations allowed, at first, to reach an agreement on the candidacies for the 577 electoral constituencies: 229 for LFI, 175 for the PS, 92 for the Ecologists and 50 for the PCF. All will be presented under a single acronym and from the first round that will take place on June 30. The second round is scheduled for July 7.

What does the program contain?

In the first 15 days, the New Popular Front government will have a single priority: respond to the urgencies of the French. “We are going to put an end to the brutalization and abuses of the Macron years. “We will immediately adopt 20 rupture measures to respond to the social emergency, the climate challenge, the repair of public services and a path towards peace in France and around the world.” says the text defined as “legislative contract”

This contract begins by declaring a state of social emergency:

• Freezing prices of essential foods, energy and fuel by decree.
• Immediate repeal of Macron’s pension reform and unemployment insurance reform.
• Increase of minimum salary at 1,600 euros net and increase in the minimum pension to the level of the minimum wage, increase in scholarships, apprentices and interns.
• Participate in trade negotiations by guaranteeing a minimum price for farmers and taxing the super profits of agribusiness and supermarkets.
• Increase the APL (Personalized Housing Assistance) by 10%.

Tackling the climate challenge

• Declare a moratorium on large highway infrastructure projects.
• Moratorium on megapools and introduce precise rules for sharing water between all activities.

Defend the right to housing

• Reactivate the construction of social housing by reinvesting Macron’s cuts of 1.4 billion euros per year to social housing bodies.
• Create the necessary emergency accommodation to offer unconditional reception and, in emergency situations, requisition the empty homes necessary to house homeless people.

Repair utilities

• Organize a conference to avoid the saturation of public hospitals during the summer.
• Restore the emancipatory role of public schools while preserving the freedom of education.
• Take the first steps to make school completely free: dining rooms, material, transportation, extracurricular activities, etc.

To calm

• Relaunch the creation of subsidized jobs for associations, particularly sports and popular education associations.
• Deploy the first proximity police teams, ban the LBD (defense bullet launcher), mutilating grenades and dismantle the BRAV-M (repressive motorized brigades).

Restoring peace in Kanaky-New Caledonia

• Abandon the constitutional reform process (which produced an uprising of the native population and several deaths) supporting the search for a global agreement project that launches an authentic process of emancipation and decolonization.

Change the agenda in Europe

– Reject the austerity restrictions of the budget pact
– Propose a reform of the Common Agricultural Policy (CAP)

French diplomacy at the service of peace

Promote the commons:

• A diplomacy that preserves the environment, recognition of the crime of ecocideprotection of the seabed, defense of the management of the poles as common goods of humanity, supporting the creation of international climate and environmental justice.
• Diplomacy at the service of health: defense of the lifting of patents on vaccines and medical resources to fight pandemics.
• Diplomacy that guarantees the demilitarization and decontamination of space.
• Adopt a feminist diplomacy increasing international funding for women’s rights and driving the adoption of the most favorable legislation clause in Europe.
• Enforce France’s commitment to allocate 0.7% of its GNI (Gross National Wealth) to official development assistance.
• Stop Vladimir Putin’s war of aggression and to answer for his crimes before international justice: defend the sovereignty and freedom of the Ukrainian people, as well as the integrity of its borders by delivering the necessary weapons, the cancellation of its foreign debt, the seizure of the assets of the oligarchs who contribute to the Russian war effort within the framework permitted by international law, sending peacekeeping forces to secure nuclear power plants, in an international context of tension and war on the European continent, and working for the return of peace.

Work for an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and a just and lasting peace

• Break with the French government’s culpable support for Netanyahu’s far-right supremacist government to impose an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and ensure compliance with the International Court of Justice (ICJ) order, which establishes the risk of genocide.
• Act in favor of the release of the hostages held since the Hamas terrorist massacres whose theocratic project we reject, and for the release of Palestinian political prisoners.
• Support the International Criminal Court (ICC) in its prosecutions against the leaders of Hamas and the Netanyahu government.
• Immediately recognize the State of Palestine alongside the State of Israel on the basis of UN resolutions.
• Declare an embargo on the supply of weapons to Israel.
• Impose sanctions against Netanyahu’s far-right government as long as it fails to respect international law in Gaza and the West Bank.
• Request the suspension of the EU-Israel Association Agreement conditional on respect for human rights.
• Allow free elections to be held under international supervision so that Palestinians can decide their own destiny.
• Guarantee respect for the sovereignty of Lebanon and the protection of the 700 French citizens who work as blue helmets for international law.

The first 100 days

The New Popular Front announces that after the first 15 days, an extraordinary session will be opened in the National Assembly, followed by a second at the end of the Olympic and Paralympic Games that will end on September 8. After the emergency measures by decree, the introduction of a great law will make it possible to overcome and improve the social situation of the French, impoverished during the 7 years of Macronism and 3 years of inflation. It is proposed to index salaries to inflation and raise the Autonomy Allowance for the Disabled (AAH) to the level of the minimum wage and abolish Macron’s 10% tax on energy bills, cancel the planned increase in the price of gas on the 1st July, set a maximum limit for banking fees, etc.

Two important laws will allow us to begin rebuilding the two most crucial public services: health and education. On the other hand, a law on energy and climate will lay the foundations for ecological planning. Finally, the first amending budget aimed at abolishing the privileges of billionaires will be presented. To remedy the fact that taxation is regressive for the richest in France, it is planned to re-introduce a solidarity tax on wealth (ISF) “reinforced with a climate component.”

Regarding the media, the program proposes “the independence of newsrooms from their owners” and calls for “guarantee the long-term future of a public audiovisual service introducing long-term, clear and socially fair financing that guarantees its independence”, in reference to the fee eliminated by Emmanuel Macron in 2022. Another objective is to fight against the concentration of the media, but also “exclude the media from public financing who have been convicted of inciting hatred or offending the dignity of people”.

Fight all forms of racism, anti-Semitism and Islamophobia

“At a time when the far right threatens, we point out that racist, anti-Semitic and Islamophobic speeches and actions are spreading throughout society and experiencing a worrying and unprecedented explosion. There can be no tolerance for such threats and behavior, wherever they come from.”says the New Popular Front.

The document proposes providing justice with the means to pursue and punish the authors of racist, Islamophobic and anti-Semitic comments or acts, creating an Equality Commission with a Discrimination Observatory and specialized units in public services and appeal courts, adopt and implement a plan to combat discrimination especially in matters of recruitment, health and housing, and increase sanctions.

“Anti-Semitism has a tragic history in our country that should not be repeated. “All those who spread hatred of Jews must be fought.”

This aspect of the program is important since a large part of the media, Macron’s government, right-wing and far-right parties They systematically attacked the rebels during the campaign for the European elections, accusing them of being “anti-Semitic”, of not belonging “to the republican arc”, and even of being more dangerous than the RN (National Regrouping), Marine Le Pen’s party. Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s statement indicating in his blog on June 2 that “anti-Semitism is residual in France” gave rise to these attacks and caused deep rejection in the Jewish community and a large part of French citizens. Anti-Semitic acts in France have increased by 300% since October 7, 2023.

While the left unites, the right fractures.

The president of “The Republicans”, Eric Ciotti (7.5%) concluded an alliance, without consulting, with the party of Le Pen and Bardella (31.4%). Despite having been resigned by the majority of the party’s leaders, Ciotti clings to his position, recently supported by a court decision that invalidates his expulsion. On the other hand, Marion Marechal Le Pen did the same and was expelled by Eric Zemmour, the president of “Reconquête”, the far-right party that obtained 5.5% in the European elections on Sunday.

Emmanuel Macron and his allies (14.6%) are the main losers of these elections and the surprising dissolution of the National Assembly, announced an hour after the results were known, caused stupor among their ranks. The president’s dangerous bet opens the door to a possible victory for the extreme right in France. Macron’s attempts to create a “Republican Front” with his supporters and a part of PS members, enemies of an alliance with the Insumisos, exploded when Raphaël Glucksmann, head of the PS-Public Square list, defended the New Popular Front as well like former president François Hollande.

The enthusiasm generated by the unity of the left, especially among the youth who have been demonstrating since Sunday in squares throughout France, will be expressed on a large scale this Saturday the 15th in demonstrations called by 5 unions, parties and organizations. The New Popular Front is the only one that can prevent Macron from cohabiting with a far-right prime minister from July 8.