Mélenchon’s rejection of the radical left makes a united front in France against the extreme right difficult

The distrust aroused by the radical left of La France Insoumise (LFI), and particularly its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, is becoming one of the main obstacles to unifying political forces in France beyond the left in a so-called “republican” front. This expression refers to the cordon sanitaire that the other French formations impose on the extreme right. The reticence towards the leftist candidate makes it difficult for the declared attempt of the majority of forces to stop the National Rally (RN) in the second round of the legislative elections on July 7 to prevent, for the first time in French history, an extreme right that has emerged from the ballot box from forming a government and appointing a prime minister. The first round gave a third of the vote on Sunday to Marine Le Pen’s party.

The counter has already started ticking: the parties have until 6:00 p.m. on Tuesday to present their candidacies for the second round on Sunday. Given the record number of triangular constituencies (constituencies in which more than two candidates have passed the first screening), more than 300, the key is in the call withdrawal: the withdrawal of the third-placed candidate in the territories where three candidates make it to the second round, in order to concentrate the vote on the candidate with the greatest chance of defeating the RN representative next Sunday.

The key lies above all with President Emmanuel Macron’s camp, the big loser at the polls, with his centrist alliance, which until now had the parliamentary majority, coming in a distant third place with 20.83% of the votes. He was not even able to confirm in the first round any of the ministers who were running for office from the outgoing Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who will also have to go to the second round.

Macron sent a message on Sunday evening calling for “a great, clearly democratic and republican union” against the RN and, according to several media, has called a meeting with his ministers on Monday to decide in which constituencies they could withdraw. Meanwhile, several prominent members of Macronism have excluded Mélenchon’s LFI from this possible “republican” alliance, ignoring the call of the left-wing bloc New Popular Front (NFP), second with 27.99% of the votes, to unite all possible forces against the RN and its allies, which are clearly ahead with 33.15% of the votes.

The last was the Minister of Economy, Bruno Le Maire, who this Monday repeated the slogan of voting, in case there is no candidate of his own for the second round, “for a candidate from the social democratic camp”, but “not for “The Rebellious France.” LFI “is a danger to the nation, just as the RN is a danger to the republic,” he declared on the France Inter network. Macronist personalities such as former Prime Minister Édouard Philippe, the outgoing president of the National Assembly, Yaël Braun-Privet, or the Minister Delegate for Equality, Aurore Bergé, have spoken in a similar way in recent hours.

Meanwhile, what remains of the conservative party Les Républiques (LR), following the departure of its president, Éric Ciotti, who has allied himself with the far right, continues to refuse to give a voting slogan against the RN next Sunday. “Considering that voters are free to choose, we will not give a national slogan and we will let the French express themselves according to their conscience,” they say in a statement quoted by Le MondeThis group obtained a meager 6.6% of the vote in the legislative elections.

Taking advantage of the divisions caused by Mélenchon, the RN candidate for prime minister, Jordan Bardella, has urged the French to support the far right next Sunday to guarantee a “responsible break” in the face of the “existential threat to the nation.” French” which is, in his opinion, the leftist alliance. Bardella reduces that alliance to the party with the most weight, LFI.

In an “open letter” to the French, Bardella stated this Monday that in Sunday’s second round, they have two options: either the RN or the NFP’s “agents of chaos.” A bloc that he defines as “an alliance of the worst of the extreme left gathered behind Mélenchon.” In one more attempt to identify the entire leftist alliance with the insubordinates, Bardella also says he is “ready to debate” with the leader of LFI.

Aware of the divisions that Mélenchon’s figure provokes in its own electorate – especially in the more moderate ones – the New Popular Front has tried throughout the campaign to relegate the controversial, rebellious leader to the background, who has not even participated in the two electoral debates held so far. Nor did he speak on behalf of his party (his right-hand man, Manuel Bompard, did) in the call for a “republican” front of all possible forces that the NFP leaders made on Sunday night in the iconic Place de la République in Paris. Mélenchon did, however, take the microphone when everyone else had left to give his own speech to the thousands of demonstrators who remained until well after midnight in the centre of the capital.

The strategy of identifying the entire left alliance with Mélenchon seems to be working: The Figarothe traditional right-wing newspaper, dedicates its cover to a large photo of Bardella and Mélenchon, encompassing the entire NFP, exactly the image that the moderate left parties have tried to avoid all this time.

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