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In a sign of advancement of what Jean-Luc Mélenchon has called “the third round”, the La France Insumisa (LFI) movement sealed an agreement with the French Communist Party (PCF) and gave an ultimatum to the Socialist Party ( PS), with whom it has not been possible to agree on the formation of the great left-wing bloc that hopes to face Emmanuel Macron in parliament and hopes to win a majority of legislators in the elections on June 12 and 19.
As another victory for the political maneuvering of the French opposition, this Tuesday the French Communist Party (PCF) confirmed its alliance with the leftist bloc, led by Jean Luc-Mélenchon’s La France Insumisa (LFI), in the construction of a bloc with you aim to win the largest number of seats in the legislative elections in June.
“We want to federate on the basis of an ambitious program all the forces that share it, respecting their plurality and their autonomy,” the PCF said in a statement.
On May 3, 1936, the Front Populaire held the legislative elections.
On May 3, 2022, we nous rassemblons au sein d’une Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale.
Ensemble, écrivons l’Histoire en gagnant ces elections législatives. pic.twitter.com/P3p6uBj0QS
— Fabien Roussel (@Fabien_Roussel) May 3, 2022
A decision that comes just one day after the Europa Ecología Los Verdes (EELV) party has adhered to the common program of the left, but that is known just as the internal division in the Socialist Party (PS) grows, another of the key members to face the Government caucus in the legislature, but with whom the negotiations have been more difficult.
The PS, the progressive party with which Mélenchon has been in negotiations in search of an alliance, revealed this Tuesday more insecurities to accept the invitation to the opposition coalition.
“There are still a certain number of elements to adjust on the programmatic content, the distribution of the constituencies. We have been fighting for the PS proposals for days, so that the territorial distribution is respected (…) They will see that the socialists will be respected on issues Republicans, on secular issues,” said Pierre Jouvet, spokesman and chief negotiator for the Socialist Party, in an interview with the Europe 1 media outlet.
Statements to which are added the comments of the former prime minister, Bernard Cazeneuve, who on Tuesday threatened to leave the Socialist Party if it decides to form the New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES).
“Because I am faithful to republican socialism and I will continue to be so, I could not, in conscience and responsibility, continue in a party whose leaders have forgotten their foundations and lost their compass,” said Cazaneuve.
However, the decision of the Socialists should be known soon, since La Francia Insumisa gave until Tuesday night as an ultimatum for them to make the decision to join the pact, assuring that the PS constituency proposals are too ambitious. Especially, considering that the support that its candidate, Anne Hidalgo, had in the first round of the presidential elections, was less than 2%.
“Our exchange is cordial, but there are still points of friction both in the background (…) and in the constituencies,” said the LFI’s negotiator, Manuel Bompard, in front of his party’s headquarters, where they are taking carry out the negotiations.
The French opposition seeks legislative victory
After obtaining more votes than in 2017, with 22% of the French support, occupying the third place as the most voted presidential candidate in the first presidential round and remaining by a small margin outside the second round behind the extreme populist right-wing Marine Le Pen, the veteran leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon seems to be getting closer to his goal of uniting the left that came to the presidential elections as a single bloc.
After Emmanuel Macron’s victory, Mélenchon made his goal clear: join forces with the leftist parties and establish himself as prime minister. An ambitious goal for a France that is turning more and more to the right.
To achieve this, the nascent left-wing coalition would need to win a majority of the 577-seat lower house, the National Assembly, in elections to be held in two rounds of voting on June 12 and 19.
The French left and its strategy for the legislative
Macron, who, in addition to obtaining victory in the executive, needs good representation in the legislature, has more than 300 seats in the outgoing parliament, added to his centrist allies, some on the right who refuse to see a victory on the left, some a few former socialist ministers and other center-left figures who have also announced their support for the young president. Which makes him the favorite to win a parliamentary majority again.
For its part, the strategy of the united left will be to seek votes strategically in the regions for each party and not compete with each other.
For the legislative elections, unlike the presidential ones, the parliamentarians are chosen by districts and the voters do not normally follow the same political line that they chose for the presidential ones.
This is how, according to the agreement reached on Monday with the Greens, the environmentalist party will present candidates in 100 districts in which the legislators of La Francia Insumisa will not appear and, in addition, they agreed that if the coalition obtains a parliamentary majority, the Greens they will support Mélenchon in his goal of becoming Prime Minister of France.
Before the European Parliament, Manon Aubry, member of LFI said that the agreement of the two political benches includes the objectives of reducing the retirement age to 60 years, increasing the minimum wage and limiting the prices of essential products.
Proposals that add to the ideas that some socialists publicly defend such as “disobeying” the rules of the European Union, opposition to the supply of weapons to Ukraine and the request that France abandon NATO’s military command.
With EFE, AP and local media.
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