France’s left has a Jean-Luc Melenchon problem.
The towering firebrand of France’s hard-left, Melenchon’s France Unbowed (LFI) party won the most seats of the leftist alliance that scored a shock victory over the far right in Sunday’s snap legislative election.
His party’s top position gives him a credible claim to be France’s next prime minister, but his hopes of dragging France sharply leftward appear dead after mainstream party chiefs quickly ruled out forming a coalition with a tax-and-spend, pro-Gaza figure who many in France view as an anti-Semitic radical.
Photo: EPA-EFE
The New Popular Front (NFP) leftist alliance could seek to cobble together an unwieldy coalition without him, or try to form a minority government by reaching individual deals on legislation with rivals, but neither would be easy.
Melenchon, who denies accusations of anti-Semitism, “is the most divisive figure within the NFP,” said Socialist leader Olivier Faure, referring to the New Popular Front (NFP) leftist alliance.
Other members of the NFP, speaking on condition of anonymity, were even more frank.
“Melenchon is a problem,” a Green Party lawmaker said.
Melenchon, 72, has been a fixture of the French left for decades, holding ministerial posts in past governments when he was a Socialist party member. He ran for president in 2012, 2017 and 2022, coming third that year behind far-right leader Marine Le Pen and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Although not a lawmaker himself, he holds a tight grip on the LFI. An admirer of Latin American revolutionary leaders, he advocates price controls, a huge increase in the minimum wage and a reinstatement of the wealth tax.
His reputation took a beating in 2018 when he was caught on camera shouting “I am the Republic!” to anti-graft investigators searching his party headquarters
The question of how to deal with Melenchon is just one of the headaches facing France’s new lawmakers as they seek to chart a path forward for a country unaccustomed to the chaotic coalition governments often seen in Germany and the Netherlands.
Leaders of the component parties of the NFP have been meeting to discuss who should replace French Prime Minister Gabriel Attal, who tendered his resignation to Macron on Monday, but is expected to stay on in a caretaker capacity.
A source at the Communist Party, one of the NFP’s smaller members, said discussions were also centered on what strategy the alliance should adopt. The strong showing of the Socialists within the NFP alliance has given them more leverage than before.
Melenchon was the first political leader to react to Sunday’s legislative results, in what appeared an early pitch for the prime ministership. He said the result was a damning indictment of Macron and the far right.
“The president must invite the New Popular Front to govern,” he said.
Melenchon’s mainstream opponents were quick to say they would not do business with him.
Former French prime minister Edouard Philippe, seen as a possible Macron successor in 2027, said any potential coalition government “cannot be the work of a single man.”
“The credibility of our country could be damaged by this and the centrist political forces must without compromise make an agreement to stabilize politics, but without France Unbowed and the RN,” he said.
Macron’s second-placed bloc, as well as representatives of the center-right Republicans, have also appeared to rule out a coalition with Melenchon.
Green party leader Marine Tondelier, a breakout star of the campaign who is also a potential prime ministerial contender, was more circumspect. She told France Inter radio the post could be filled by someone from LFI, the Greens or the Socialists.
It is usually a serene two-and-a-half-hour ride on Japan’s famously efficient bullet train, but on Saturday, the journey quickly descended into a zombie apocalypse, with passengers screaming in terror. Organizers of the adrenaline-filled trip, less than two weeks before Halloween, touted it as the world’s first haunted house experience on a running Shinkansen. On board one chartered car of the Shinkansen, about 40 thrill-seekers were ready to brave an encounter with the living dead between Tokyo and the western metropolis of Osaka. The eerie experience was inspired by the hit 2016 South Korean action-horror movie Train to Busan, in which a father and
IRANIAN THREATS: Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami said that it would be a ‘mistake’ for Israel to attack Iran and if it did ‘we will strike you again painfully’ Israel yesterday bombed a Syrian coastal city, while the US conducted multiple strikes on targets in Yemen nearly a month into Israel’s war with Hezbollah in Lebanon. Syria, the Houthi rebels in Yemen, Hezbollah and Hamas in Gaza all belong to the so-called “axis of resistance” led by Iran, which on Oct. 1 conducted a missile strike on Israel. Israel has vowed to retaliate for the strike. Iran’s Revolutionary Guards chief Hossein Salami yesterday said in a speech that Tehran would hit Israel “painfully” if it attacks Iranian targets. “If you make a mistake and attack our targets, whether in the region or in
NEW RECRUITS: A video released by Ukrainian officials allegedly shows dozens of North Koreans lining up to collect military fatigues from Russian servicemen Russian aerial strikes wounded more than a dozen and knocked out electricity for tens of thousands of Ukrainians overnight in attacks on residential areas as temperatures dropped toward freezing, Kyiv said yesterday. Ukraine also said it had targeted a crucial Russian explosives factory, about 750km from the border, in an overnight drone attack, while Moscow said it had shot down 110 drones, the largest attempted aerial barrage by Kyiv in more than two weeks. At least 17 people were wounded in an attack on Kryvyi Rig, Ukraine, including a first responder, the Ukrainian State Emergency Service said. “At night, the enemy attacked Kryvyi
The space rock that slammed into Earth 66 million years ago at the end of the Cretaceous Period caused a global calamity that doomed the dinosaurs and many other life forms, but that was far from the largest meteorite to strike our planet. One up to 200 times bigger landed 3.26 billion years ago, triggering worldwide destruction at an even greater scale, but as new research shows, that disaster actually might have been beneficial for the early evolution of life by serving as “a giant fertilizer bomb” for the bacteria and other single-celled organisms called archaea that held dominion at the