The united French left: Mélenchon in ambush

Fractures on the right, union on the left: if Reconquête and Les Républicains continue to tear each other apart over their strategy vis-à-vis the National Rally in view of the legislative elections, the left seems to largely ally behind its new “Popular Front”, even if Jean-Luc Mélenchon remains in ambush.

Seventeen days before the first round of the early legislative elections on June 30, the great upheaval of the right is underway.

Opposite, Emmanuel Macron called on Wednesday evening, during a long press conference, to stand together against the two “extremes”, even if it meant summarizing this historic election as an opposition of “three blocs”.

In a day of Wednesday in the form of a telenova with twists and turns, the Republicans were indeed torn apart like never before: a political office decided unanimously to exclude President Eric Ciotti, isolated in his choice to form an alliance with the National Rally , big favorite. But the latter contests this sanction which he considers “illegal”, suggesting a long legal battle in the middle of the campaign.

“I know that I have the confidence of the activists,” he assured on CNews, describing the LR political office as a “cenacle of feathered hats”. According to him, 80 candidates supporting his approach would run in the legislative elections.

Bluff or real calculation? The LR investiture committee, for its part, promised to reappoint all outgoing deputies, with the exception of Mr. Ciotti and one of his closest allies.

“There will only be one LR label,” insisted LR President of the Senate Gérard Larcher in the evening, satisfied to have seen the situation “clarified”.

The crisis is also open at Reconquête, where the head of the European list Marion Maréchal announced her break with Eric Zemmour, accusing him of wanting to present candidates against the RN and refusing to “participate in yet another division of the rights”.

Accusations denied by the 2022 presidential candidate, who responded by announcing the exclusion of Ms. Maréchal from Reconquête: “She has reached the end of the road, that is to say, she excludes herself from her -even from this party that she has always despised,” said Eric Zemmour on BFMTV in the evening.

Far from these dissensions, the left achieved the feat of forming an alliance in a few days under the formula of the new “Popular Front”. From La France insoumise to the Socialist Party, including the Ecologists and the PCF, the leaders managed to share almost all of the 577 constituencies.

With their score of 22% for Jean-Luc Mélenchon in the presidential election, the Insoumis will have the most candidates. But a hundred fewer than in 2022, because they had to concede a clear rebalancing in favor of the Socialist Party, winning on the left of the European elections with the ally of Place publique Raphaël Glucksmann.

But the shadow of Jean-Luc Mélenchon continues to hang over the campaign. On France 2, the LFI leader, whose rhetorical excesses annoy the moderate electorate, has not closed the door to the idea of ​​taking the head of this coalition. For Matignon, “I do not eliminate myself but I do not impose myself”, he declared, specifying that he felt “capable” of it.

The presidential camp launches its campaign on Thursday the day after a press conference by Emmanuel Macron where he set the course in the face of extremes.

Remaining discreet in the first hours of the campaign, Prime Minister Gabriel Attal met Thursday morning on France Inter, then on the ground in Boulogne-sur-Mer, in a constituency in Pas-de-Calais where the National Rally had almost won in 2022.

“I do not want to give the keys to power to the far right in 2027,” warned Emmanuel Macron, who ruled out a debate with Marine Le Pen before the legislative elections while admitting to having a personal “responsibility” for the rise of the party to the flame.

Meanwhile, the president of the RN Jordan Bardella is launched on his dynamics. The first polls show him a score of 31% in the legislative elections, as in the European elections last Sunday. With a clear increase in RN troops in the Assembly, estimated between 220 and 270 seats according to an Elabe survey for BFMTV, compared to 88 before the dissolution.

He would need 289 deputies to obtain an absolute majority and open the doors of Matignon wide.