Discussions within the French left on a unity agreement for the June legislative elections seemed to enter their decisive phase on Monday, after an initial agreement between the leader of the radical left, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, and the main environmentalist party. , including compromises on European issues.
Carried by his nearly 22% of the votes in the first round of the presidential election on April 10, Jean-Luc Mélenchon aims to obtain a majority in the legislative elections thanks to alliances and thus to impose a sharing of power on the head of the state, the centrist Emmanuel Macron.
Mr. Mélenchon believes that Emmanuel Macron’s victory in the second round, on April 24, is due to the rejection of his far-right opponent, Marine Le Pen, and not to adherence to his policy pursued for five years. He therefore initiated discussions last week with environmentalists, the Socialist Party and even the Communists.
A first step was taken overnight from Sunday to Monday with an agreement concluded between his formation, La France insoumise (LFI), and the Europe Ecology Les Verts (EELV) party.
“It is historic because there has never been an agreement in history between EELV and LFI at the national level for legislative elections”, rejoiced Manuel Bompard, the chief negotiator of La France insoumise. , on France Inter radio.
Disobeying European rules
“We have taken a very strong first act” for a union of much more often divided lefts, welcomed the BFMTV television channel Julien Bayou, national secretary of the largest French environmentalist party.
Within the framework of this new “People’s Ecological and Social Union”, several points have been settled, some after intense negotiations.
The agreement provides, among other things, for the possibility of disobeying certain European rules – only in the budgetary and economic fields – in the event that the European Union prevents the application of the program.
Any escalation towards an exit from the EU is on the other hand prohibited, as demanded by the Greens, who have also obtained around 100 electoral constituencies in the country, including 30 deemed to be winnable. Enough to guarantee the environmental pole to have a parliamentary group, i.e. a minimum of 15 deputies in a hemicycle which has 577.
“We want to build a common banner with all the forces of the left to build a majority”, underlined Julien Bayou, however, expressing the hope of seeing the Socialist Party (PS) and the French Communist Party (PCF) join the new alliance on Monday.
Fronde at the PS
The negotiations were to resume at midday with the Socialists, then at the beginning of the afternoon with the Communists – two formations which, like EELV, made less than 5% during the first round of the presidential election.
At the PS, who emerged bloodless from the presidential election with less than 2% of the vote, behind the PCF, a first for more than half a century, the leader of the party, Olivier Faure, must face a revolt fueled by accusations of sell off the history of its formation.