Press
According to projections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his left-wing coalition won the 20224 French election. But many people don’t want him as head of government. Who is he?
Paris/Berlin – After French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal announced his resignation, another is now reaching for government power: Jean-Luc Mélenchon, who came third behind President Emmanuel Macron and the former chair of the National Rally (RN), Marine Le Pen, emerged with his party as the winner of the parliamentary elections in France. However, his prospects for the post of head of government are poor.
“The president has a duty to call on the Nouveau Front Populaire (NFP) to govern,” said Jean-Luc Mélenchon after the first projections for the 2024 French election. Prime Minister Gabriel Attal from President Macron’s camp must go – which he announced on election night after French voters placed the centrist camp “Ensemble” in second place behind the left-wing alliance NFP, according to projections.
Warning in French election: Mélenchon and his program could lead to “civil war”
Macron should admit his defeat in the French election, said Mélenchon. He ruled out negotiations about a merger with Macron’s camp. But even within the left there is a dispute about Mélenchon as a leadership icon, and the populist is heavily criticized even within his own party. The left-wing alliance does not have a clear leadership.
The President of the French Republic, who had called for early parliamentary elections in France following his party’s heavy losses in the European elections, strongly denigrated the left-wing camp in the run-up to the elections. He placed Mélenchon’s party “La France Insoumise” on a par with the right-wing populist RN, for example by saying that the programs of the two parties could lead to a “civil war” in France.
Polls for the French election 20224: Mélenchon’s “Nouveau Front Populaire” strong among young people
After the RN’s advance in the first round of the 2024 French election, the French president, like the left-wing alliance, had also called on candidates to withdraw in the second round where they were placed third. This contributed to voters in many places having to decide for or against Le Pen’s party. However, Macron had clearly rejected a government with the LFI: “That is completely out of the question,” he quoted ntv the president.
In the NFP’s election manifesto, the demands for a higher minimum wage, CO₂ neutrality by 2050 and higher taxes on the rich are particularly important. While the alliance with its classically left-wing positions appealed mainly to voters between the ages of 18 and 24 in the last election, according to surveys by the French opinion research institute “Ifop”, Macron’s ensemble was strong among people aged 65 and over.
Accused of anti-Semitism – Mélenchon does not see Hamas as a terrorist organisation
Before the parliamentary elections, France’s divided left had joined forces in the NFP: the left-wing populist “La France insoumise” (LFI), the social democratic “Parti socialiste”, the green “Écologistes”, the communist PCF and their allies. LFI founder Mélenchon is at the centre of the alliance, but his political positions are controversial even within his own ranks. Especially in the wake of the attack by the Islamist Hamas on Israel and the subsequent war in the Gaza Strip, he was notable for not wanting to classify Hamas as “terrorist.”
The president of France’s dissolved parliament, Yaël Braun-Pivet (Ensemble), accuses several members of the LFI of anti-Semitism. “The vast majority of the left-wing camp stand for republican values, I can support them – Greens, Socialists, Communists,” the daily News the MP from Macron’s Renaissance Party. At LFI, however, she differentiates on a case-by-case basis.
Mélenchon fired at Merkel and accused Germany of abusing its power
Mélenchon is not only making headlines for his trivialization of Hamas. In the past, the left-wing populist has repeatedly attracted attention with Eurosceptic statements and also harshly rebuked former Chancellor Angela Merkel when she criticized France’s efforts to reform its budget policy as inadequate. The left-wing politician tweeted at the time: “Shut up, Ms Merkel! France is free!” The Federal Republic should take care of its poor and “infrastructure lying in ruins.”
Mélenchon has also dedicated his own pamphlet to his aversion to German economic policy: “The Bismarck Herring – The German Poison”. World quotes his expressed aversion to a supposed abuse of power by Germany with the words: “Germany dominates us.”
Armin Laschet: Mélenchon did not win
In Germany, CDU foreign policy expert Armin Laschet still sees chances for a pro-European majority after the surprising outcome of the parliamentary elections in France. “Neither the right-wing extremists around Ms. (Marine) Le Pen nor the anti-Semitic and anti-German left-wing radicals around (Jean-Luc) Mélenchon have won, but there is a chance for a democratic and pro-European majority,” Laschet, who is a member of the board of the German-French Parliamentary Assembly, told the German Press Agency in Berlin.
According to projections, the left-wing alliance is ahead in the parliamentary elections in France. The right-wing nationalist RN performed much worse than expected. It could only end up in third place behind the centrist camp of President Macron, as the broadcasters TF1 and France2 reported after the polling stations closed. However, none of the camps is likely to achieve an absolute majority of 289 seats. (dpa)
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