A tweet and four syllables: “His-to-ri-que!” According to the deputy of La France insoumise Alexis Corbière, his party marked French political history on Sunday May 1 by concluding an agreement with Europe Ecologie-Les Verts in view of the legislative elections of June 12 and 19. Like Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s spokesperson, MEPs Manon Aubry and Manuel Bompard also described as“historical”, Monday, the pact concluded between the two parties around the New People’s Ecological and Social Union. Negotiations are going well with the Socialist Party and the French Communist Party for them to join.
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“It is factually true, there had never been an agreement, in history, between Europe Ecologie-Les Verts and La France insoumise at the national level for the legislative elections”, rightly defended Manuel Bompard, on France Inter. So far, the two young movements, born respectively in 2010 and 2016, had only found common ground during interim elections. At the 2021 regionals, an EELV-LFI-PS-PCF list had, for example, been presented in the first round in Hauts-de-France.
If the other main forces of the left rally, would we witness an unprecedented union on this side of the political spectrum? “In recent history, I don’t see any other case of a left-wing alliance going from the socialists to the ‘Rebels’, despite some occurrences at the local level”asserts to World the historian Gilles Candar, specialist of the French lefts and ex-elected socialist.
“On a national level, [une alliance LFI-EELV-PCF-PS] would be a first. (…) It would certainly be an important, historical fact.”
Gilles Candar, historianin the world”
Under the Fifth Republic, the heyday of the union of the left dates back to the legislative elections of 1973. An alliance was then concluded between the PS, the PCF and the Movement of Left Radicals (MRG), around a common program of government. The ballot had been marked by a strong push from the left, which had come within a hair’s breadth of the majority on the right.
“The agreement on the common program, in 1972, was the culmination of ten years of tormented and tortuous work, with two very powerful parties, and a slow turn of the PCF towards more unitary policies, reminds franceinfo Marc Lazar, professor of history and political sociology at Sciences Po. This year, we are in an improvisation of a completely different nature, in a more fragmented landscape.”
In comparison with the 1973 legislative elections, the 2022 scenario also differs in the nature of the balance of power, favorable to La France insoumise. “It would be the first time in a long time that an agreement has been reached with a driving force that would be the most radical in the coalition”, analyzes Gilles Candar. The union of the left of the 1970s was made “in favor of its more moderate elements”recalls the historian.
In the legislative elections of 1997, the “plural left” was born of a lesser ambition. The PS had initiated, after its collapse in the legislative elections of 1993, “a whole series of negotiations and working groups with the other parties”, according to Marc Lazar. The balance of power was then in favor of Lionel Jospin and his troops. Ultra-dominant, the PS had come to power after joining forces with the PCF, the Radical Left Party (PRG), the Citizens’ Movement and The Greens.
Notable difference: “There was no common program, but a series of variable geometry agreements that the PS had signed with its partners, failing to bring everyone to agreement, in particular the Communists and the Greens”, underlines the researcher. It was only a matter of withdrawing in the second round in favor of the best-placed leftist candidate.
And if we go back further, to the eve of the anniversary of the victory of the Popular Front in the legislative elections of 1936? The left is “at such a historic turning point”estimated, Monday, the leader of the PCF, Fabien Roussel. “The Popular Front is a 40-hour week, works councils, salary increases right away, great progress social, he listed on franceinfo. It is a movement of the same magnitude that young people and the world of work are waiting for.”
The Popular Front had won these legislative elections by uniting under its banner several left-wing parties, starting with the ancestor of the PS, the SFIO, as well as the Radical Party and the Communist Party. The rule was then to vote for the best placed candidate at the end of the first round. “This agreement was immediately supported by a multitude of trade union organizations and associations, which will obviously not be the case this year.observes Marc Lazar. But the era was different, marked by the rise of fascism and another political system, the Third Republic.”
If an LFI-EELV-PS-PCF agreement were reached before May 8, the banner of the New People’s Ecological and Social Union would have more than a month left to rally civil society behind it by June 12 and attempt to enter the history books.