In the market square in East Paris, we drink beer and dance to the beat of the drums. Residents of the surrounding quarters and supporters of different ages from the left have gathered at the site. They want a radical leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchonist The next Prime Minister of France.
One of Mélenchon’s supporters is 20 years old Maria Laly. Laly says she is interested in politics with the April presidential election, as are many other young French people.
– I was really disappointed with the election result. Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen, who made it to the second round, didn’t represent the values that are important to me at all, and I felt downright desperate, he says.
Laly says issues related to climate policy and social justice are important to her.
– Recently, the news has been dominated by rumors of charges of harassment of ministers and police violence. It seems that France is no longer the promised country of human rights as we are once known, Laly sighs.
Maria Laly joined a youth group a month ago campaigning for a left-wing electoral coalition founded by Mélenchon. He walks door to door and distributes election brochures on the streets of Paris.
– I’m afraid for my future. It feels bleak in many ways. However, I decided not to worry about things alone, but to try to make an impact.
The left promises to lower the retirement age and control prices
After the presidential election, the French left-wing parties formed a historic electoral alliance called the People’s Union, or Nupes. It includes Mélenchon’s Indomitable France Party, the Environment Party, the Socialists and the Communist Party. The new alliance has garnered support, especially among young French people.
Among other things, Nupes is pushing for the retirement age to be reduced to 60 years, the minimum wage to be raised to € 1,500, a price cap for food essential to everyday life, billions to prevent violence against women and state-subsidized energy renovation for housing.
Mélenchon’s anti-EU and anti-NATO sentiment has been eradicated from the election program. However, in order to pursue its political goals, Nupes would be prepared to deviate from common EU legislation.
Candidate for the Left Alliance campaigning in Paris Daniel Simonnet says his party opposes Macron’s neoliberal policies.
– French hospitals are at the limits of their carrying capacity, there are no teachers in the schools and even the final of the Football Champions League ended in chaos and explanation. The most serious thing is climate change, in the face of which the current government is powerless, Simonnet ashes.
Simonnet is a member of Mélenchon’s Indomitable France party and has a good chance of being elected to parliament in his constituency of Paris.
– Macron is the President elected by the smallest number of votes in the history of the Fifth French Republic. Opinion polls say a majority of French would like a coalition government in the country, Simonnet says.
Macron needs a majority to keep its election promise
Candidate Simonnet walks a familiar face on the other side of the canal: former chairman of the British Labor Party Jeremy Corbyn. Corbyn says he has arrived in Paris to campaign on behalf of the Mélenchon Prime Minister.
– I am impressed with the way in which the French left was able to rally itself after the defeat in the presidential election. Jean-Luc Mélenchon has succeeded in uniting the left-wing parties, Corbyn praises.
The former chairman of the Labor Party says he believes a victory for the Left Alliance is possible.
The French parliamentary elections will be held on two consecutive Sundays, June 12 and 19, and are forecast to be tougher than five years ago. Opinion polls hold about 25 percent of the vote for Macron’s center-right alliance and about 26 percent for the Mélenchon-led left-wing alliance.
The two-stage election will elect 577 members to the lower house of parliament, the National Assembly, while resolving Macron’s chances of fulfilling his election promises. If Macron wants to make the policy he wants, he would have to keep the majority in the National Assembly under his party.
President Macron and Prime Minister Mélenchon?
In recent weeks, France has been debating whether Mélencho could really become the next prime minister. Coalition governments have been rare in presidential-led France. And if an opposition leader were to become prime minister, it would make decision-making more difficult when the president and prime minister were pursuing different policies.
The Left Alliance conducts little opinion polls, but the two-stage electoral system has generally favored the presidential party. Once again, it seems that when transformed, Macron still has a strong edge over its competitors.
Polls predict 275 to 315 seats for Macron’s center-right electoral coalition, 130 to 200 seats for the Mélenchon-led left, and about 40 seats for Marine Le Pen’s far-right party.
An absolute majority of the National Assembly would require at least 289 representatives. Achieving it could make it hard for Macron, who is starting his second presidency.
Macron is accused of vagueness, Mélenchonia of populism
Macron was widely criticized in Finland French newspapers over the weekend statement estimateaccording to which Russia and the president Vladimir Putinia should not be humiliated in Ukraine. Macron’s comment was considered an error assessment in Finland and many other European countries, or at least unnecessary stuffing.
In France, the comment did not attract similar attention. Instead of foreign policy, election debates have been dominated by concerns about purchasing power, the carrying capacity of hospitals and the state of public services in general, which has been strongly emphasized by the left in particular. Young people are talking about climate policy.
Macron has promised to invest in tackling climate change and reducing purchasing power and inequality, but the content of the guidelines has remained partly vague. The presidential campaign has been very quiet overall. Mélenchon, for his part, has been accused of populism and the unreality of his election program.
Voting turnout is feared to be low on Sunday. However, Maria Laly, who is campaigning for the Mélenchon Left Alliance, hopes the French will get excited to go to the polls.
– Many young people are indifferent because their concerns have not been listened to. I want the future too, as my parents and grandparents have had. I am campaigning because I want change and I want hope, Laly says.
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Correspondent’s analysis: Macron and EU sigh of relief on Sunday – dissatisfied voters may still mess up presidential plans
Millions of French voted for far-right candidate – researchers list four reasons, one of which is Le Pen’s “hybrid populism”