The agreement for the legislative ones threatens to cause a serious internal crisis in the already weakened PS
The French Socialist Party (PS) today reached an agreement in principle with La France Insumisa (LFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s party, to join the leftist union ahead of the French legislative elections in June. Socialists and “mélenchonistas” agreed on the distribution of constituencies. The pre-agreement, which still needs to receive the approval of the Socialist Party’s national council, stipulates that 70 districts, of the 577 that are at stake in the legislative elections, will be reserved for socialist candidates. The ecologists would have reserved 100 and the communists 50 constituencies. “It is not a simple electoral agreement. On June 12 and 19, Emmanuel Macron can be defeated. We are going to do it. It is a global political agreement, “said Adrien Quatennens, a deputy from the populist leftist party La Francia Insumisa.
The agreement with Mélenchon’s party for the legislative elections threatens to provoke a serious internal crisis in the already weakened Socialist Party, whose candidate Anne Hidalgo only achieved 1.75% of the votes in the first round of the presidential elections. Several socialist heavyweights, such as former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve or former Minister Stéphane Le Foll, have threatened to leave the PS if this electoral agreement for the legislative elections is signed.
In the presidential elections in April, the left was very divided. No left-wing candidate managed to qualify for the second round of those elections, which were contested between outgoing President Emmanuel Macron and far-right candidate Marine Le Pen. Hence, the need to unite to have weight in the face of the legislative elections in June, in which the 577 seats of the National Assembly, the lower house of the French Parliament, are renewed. Mélenchon, who with 22% of the votes was the third most voted candidate in the first round of the presidential elections, is convinced that, if the left obtains a majority of deputies in the National Assembly, Macron will be forced to appoint him. Prime Minister. In this way, there would be a government of cohabitation, which could carry out more progressive policies than those announced by Macron in the program for his re-election. Le Foll does not believe in a victory for the union of the left in the legislative elections. “It’s a fable, it’s a decoy,” says this former minister, who considers that, by negotiating with the eurosceptic La Francia Insumisa, the Socialist Party “turns its back on its entire history.”
The alliance
At the moment, under the label ‘New Popular Ecological and Social Union’, La Francia Insumisa, Europa-Ecología Los Verdes (EELV) and Generations of the former socialist Benoît Hamon would be presented to the legislative elections, waiting for the Socialist Party to make their participation official. and to see what happens with the Trotskyites of the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA). On the other hand, the Workers’ Struggle (LO) and the Radical Left Party (PRG) have refused to participate in this union of leftist parties for the legislative elections.
The Socialist Party, which governed France with François Mitterrand and François Hollande, has strong local roots, despite its historic bump in the presidential elections. It is in charge of a quarter of the big French cities and directs five regions of the 13 that exist in France.
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