The left-wing coalition, Nupes, was effectively in a coma, if not dead. Tired of the strategy of excess and division of the leader of France Insoumise (LFI) Jean-Luc Mélenchon, left-wing executives have even been meeting for several months to think about a new union, more moderate, and to nominate a candidate unique to the 2027 presidential election.
Taken by surprise, the Socialist Party (PS), the Ecologists and the French Communist Party (PCF) however decided to join forces with LFI and found the New Popular Front, while setting conditions. They were joined by Génération·s, Place publique and the New Anticapitalist Party (NPA).
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Social program
They agreed on a distribution of constituencies and on a program which they presented this Friday morning. Among the main measures are the repeal of the pension reform, the reestablishment of the wealth solidarity tax (ISF), the increase in the minimum wage, the indexation of wages to inflation, floor prices to protect the agricultural income, or even the blocking of food and energy prices.
This strategic alliance would pay off, according to the latest polls. According to an Elabe opinion survey for BFMTV and La Tribune Sunday published Wednesday evening, the National Rally (RN) is credited with 31% of voting intentions, ahead of the left alliance (28%), the Renaissance presidential majority (18%) and Les Républicains (LR, 6.5%). ). According to the pollster’s projection, the RN would not have an absolute majority, set at 289 folding seats, but a very strong relative majority. It would obtain between 220 and 270 seats, against 88 currently, ahead of the united left, which would elect between 150 and 190 deputies. Nupes had 150 at the end of the 2022 legislative elections. The big losers in the vote would be Renaissance (between 90 and 130 seats) and LR (between 30 and 40 seats).
The polls could soon be even more favorable for the New Popular Front. The reason is simple: the rallying, this Thursday and Friday, of left-wing executives who abhor Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
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Raphaël Glucksmann, who led the Place publique-PS list to a third place in the European elections, had first put the brakes on the four irons in the face of this alliance and the presence of LFI; a feeling shared by left and center-left voters who also hate Jean-Luc Mélenchon and his disciples. Moreover, according to the very first polls, the four left-wing parties, if they advanced in dispersed ranks, had more voting intentions than the united left.
But Raphaël Glucksmann finally decided to join the New Popular Front. “The only thing that matters, in my eyes, is that the National Rally does not win these legislative elections and does not govern the country”, he justified this Friday morning on France Inter. “The only way to do this is for there to be a union of the left. This is our historic responsibility. But this gathering could not be done without certain clarifications, certain red lines.” They were primarily targeting LFI. These include condemnation of the Hamas terrorist attacks of October 7, support for Ukraine and the European Union.
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Other left-wing figures also gave their blessing to this alliance. Among them are socialists who support a hard line vis-à-vis LFI, such as the mayor of Paris Anne Hidalgo, the deputy Jérôme Guedj, the president of the Occitanie region Carole Delga, and the former president of the Republic François Hollande, for whom we must go “beyond differences”And “do everything so that the extreme right does not come to power in France”.
These rallies could help convince left and center-left voters, who have little appreciation for the Insoumis, to go to the polls on June 30 and July 7, and vote for the sole candidate of the New Popular Front in their constituency. . Voters who were able to vote, in recent elections, for the presidential camp.
