La France Insumisa and the socialists begin talks to try a coalition aimed at placing Mélenchon as prime minister
The French left seeks an agreement ahead of the legislative elections on June 12 and 19. A delegation from the Socialist Party (PS) held a first meeting this Wednesday with members of La France Insumisa (LFI), the far-left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to scrutinize the possibility that they could present themselves together to confront Emmanuel Macron , re-elected president last Sunday with 58.5% of the vote, and the far-right Marine Le Pen, who garnered 41.5% of the vote.
“There are no insurmountable blocking points. We have seen progress, ”Manuel Bompard, negotiator for La Francia Insumisa, explained to the press. The formation parallel to Unidos Podemos had previously had previous contacts with the Communist Party, the environmentalists (EELV) and the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA). However, the recent green candidate for the Elysee, Yannick Jadot, considers that “a coalition” behind the figure of Mélenchon “will not work”, so the option of a possible agreement between the two formations seems to be getting further and further away.
La France Insumisa asks voters “to opt for Jean-Luc Mélenchon as Prime Minister”, giving him a majority in the National Assembly on June 19 -of 577 seats-, which forces Macron to put him at the head of his Government. His calculations go through the union of the leftist parties.
to a single point
In fact, some demographic surveys have indicated that if this confluence had been reached in the face of the first round of the presidential elections, Mélenchon would probably have qualified for the second. He fell just one point behind far-right Marine Le Pen, but was eliminated.
During the campaign it was the socialist candidate, Anne Hidalgo, who considered this option, but failed in her attempt to organize a leftist primary that would unify the list. Mélenchon and Jadot refused to participate. The fight of egos and the existence of incompatible electoral programs aborted any attempt. No one was willing to give up their leading role.
All the leftist leaders were eliminated in the first round. Mélenchon obtained 21.95% of the votes, followed at a great distance by the environmentalist Yannick Jadot (4.63%), the communist Fabien Roussel (2.28%) and the socialist Anne Hidalgo (1.75%).
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