Although the opinion polls do not indicate such a victory, experts are of the opinion that a surprise is not unlikely. In the presidential elections held in April in France, President Emmanuel Macron’s strongest opponent was the far-right Marine Le Pen. In the parliamentary elections to be held on 12 and 19 June, it is expected that the left will face Macron as an opponent this time.
Nupes, short for the new left alliance formed under the leadership of 70-year-old politician Jean-Luc Mélenchon. Nupes, which can be described as the “New Ecological and Social Community Union”, seems to have widespread support, especially in Chevilly-Larue, near Paris.
The poor district of Paris: Chevilly-Larue
Voices are rising from the election stand set up in a square in this district in the south of Paris. The sounds coming out of the speakers are lost among the tall buildings. The stand was established on the occasion of a local sports event where young people compete and it also has a small stage. There are other selection stands in the vicinity.
A 19-year-old rapper named Lazak on stage. He has one arm raised in the air, keeping the rhythm in the other hand. Swaying left and right, he repeats the refrain “We are the city”. A group standing in front of the stage accompanies him loudly.
Rachel Keke is one of the singers with rapper Lazak. Keke is the candidate of the left alliance Nupes in the Val-de-Marne region. Keke, 48, of Ivory Coast origin, works as a cleaner at a hotel in Paris. Keke aims to enter the parliament to represent the citizens who are not well in the country in the elections.
This is exactly the goal of Nupes: to get the support of the low-income segment.
Opinion polls conducted before the elections indicate that the left alliance will not be able to secure a majority. However, political scientists also think that there may be a surprise.
Keke, Nupes’ candidate, tells DW that representatives of the working class should also be present in the French parliament, so that deputies who will look after their interests can be in the parliament. Keke, who is sitting on the bench close to the stage, also says that he lives just a few hundred meters away with four of his five children.
What are Nupes’ promises?
Keke, who is a French citizen, is a political candidate for the first time in his life. However, this is not his first political activity. In the past years, he has waged political struggles on different platforms. In June 2021, for example, he and his friends forced the owners of the international hotel chains Ibis and Accor to make concessions in a 22-month nonstop strike.
Almost all the demands of Keke and other hotel employees were fulfilled after their actions. “Our salaries were between 600 and 1,000 euros, now it has risen to 1,300 and 1,900. This shows that there is actually enough money and that it is possible for the poor in France to earn more,” says Keke.
Keke is confident that Nupes’ political program is geared towards citizens like him. The new alliance argues that the net monthly minimum wage, which is currently 1,300 euros, should be 1,500 euros. He also demands that the retirement age be lowered to 60 instead of the current 62. He also notes that a price limit should be imposed on gasoline and basic necessities products.
Left alliance has support from suburbs
Keke seeks support from voters in the region where he lives and is a candidate, with promises such as increasing the minimum wage, lowering the retirement age, and imposing a time limit on gasoline and other basic products. The poverty in this region, for which Keke is a candidate, is well above the French average.
Ruphin Olle Nne, 36, who came and shook hands with Keke during the event, is one of the voters Keke tried to persuade.
“It’s getting harder and harder to get by on the low salaries we get,” says a 36-year-old woman who works for a physician. She asks: “Can this really change with Nupes?”
The mother of two is pregnant with her third child.
Keke, the parliamentary candidate, gives optimistic answers to this voter and says, “I think we can succeed, but we need your support to succeed.” The pregnant woman shakes her head and replies, “I think what you have said is convincing, after all, you are one of us and you know the conditions we are in.”
During this conversation, two young men pass by. As they pass by, they shout towards Keke, “We are with you, we will vote for you” and wish him luck by showing their thumbs. Keke smiles at them and waves in response.
Le Pen is not given a chance
That is the hope of Jean-Luc Mélenchon, leader of the new left alliance Nupes. These segments win the game. Mélenchon, with his party on the left, called “La France Insoumise” (La France Insoumise, LFI), managed to become the third power by getting about 22 percent of all votes in the presidential elections.
The winner of the presidential elections was Emmanuel Macron, who managed to defeat his far-right rival Marine Le Pen in the second round. However, in the parliamentary elections to be held in the first round this Sunday and the second round on June 19, the French President’s strongest opponent will this time be from the left, not the right. Polls predict that far-right Le Pen’s party will win no more than 40 of the 577 seats in parliament this election.
Left hopes to secure first-round majority
The left alliance hopes to get a majority of the votes in the first round. To qualify for the runoff, each candidate must receive at least 12.5 percent of the votes of registered voters. The candidate who receives most of the votes in the second round succeeds in being elected.
The leader of the new left alliance, Mélenchon, managed to gather the leftist parties in the country behind him. His relatively good result in the presidential elections reconciled socialists, greens and communists on a common program marked by his own party, LFI. Socialists, greens, and communists each received less than 5 percent of the vote in the presidential election.
The program of the left alliance; It promises to protect the environment, women’s rights and the rights of immigrants. Nupes also guarantees to nationalize banks and energy supplier companies and to create employment for every citizen. He also looks critically at NATO. Mélenchon’s own party, even from NATO, advocates leaving and states that he will renegotiate some European Union arrangements.
Mélenchon’s goal is to become prime minister
Mélenchon has been calling on voters to “make me prime minister” ever since he formed the new left-wing alliance Nupes, though he is not even a candidate for parliament in these elections.
The reckoning is that Nupes won a majority in parliament. In this case, it is based on the fact that President Macron will appoint him as the prime minister, otherwise there may be a danger that the parliament, which holds the majority, will not give a vote of confidence to Macron.
In his statement to the French press, President Macron responded to Mélanchon by emphasizing that no party can force the President to become a prime minister. Reminding the predictions for the presidential elections, Macron believes that his party, together with its allies, will secure the majority in the parliament.
According to Bruno Cautrés, a lecturer at the Center for Political Studies at Science Po University in Paris, the chances of the left alliance in the second round of the elections are not very high.
Mélenchon known for his closeness to Putin
According to Cautrés, the left alliance will succeed in uniting the leftist votes in the first round of the elections, because they have no other rivals on the left. But in the runoff, Nupes’ potential to vote will be lower compared to the candidates of Macron’s party. As a matter of fact, it is possible for Macron’s candidates to win the votes of voters in the center and on the right in the second round.
Macron’s party is also likely to win some votes from the center and left, Cautrés told DW. It is estimated that Mélenchon’s ultra-leftist stance, the theses he defends in international politics, and his closeness to Russian President Vladimir Putin may frighten the French voters.
Until shortly before Russia declared war on Ukraine, Mélenchon described NATO as the aggressor, not Putin.
Among the experts, who say that it is difficult to say that there will be no surprises, there are also those who consider it possible to repeat a situation like the 1997 elections. In this period, the leftists surprisingly won the parliamentary elections, and the party president had to work with a prime minister from another party. The conservative president of the time, Jacques Chirac, was faced with the socialist government led by Lionel Jospin.