At Place de la République in Paris, the left united behind the New Popular Front had brought out its usual flags, its usual or updated slogans: “Siammo tutti anti fascisti”, “Everyone hates Bardella”. The crowd screamed with joy when a large banner “Toustes antifascistes” was unfurled on the statue in the centre of the square.
It is in front of this section of Parisian youth, diverse and overpoliticized, who seem to believe in it firmly, that the leaders of the NFP spoke on Sunday evening. What more “beautiful” symbol for a left that is dominant in large urban centers and which, like the rest of the political field, is subject to the law of the National Rally largely dominating everywhere else? With between 28 and 29% nationally, the NFP has progressed compared to the Nupes total in 2022 (26%).
“Not a single vote should go to the RN”
Not only is this insufficient to hope to obtain even a relative majority next Sunday, but the votes of the left are so concentrated in the cities that there is a chance that the NFP will return to the National Assembly with less than the 151 Nupes deputies elected two years ago.
On stage, the agreement seems clear at first glance: all the candidates of the New Popular Front who came third behind the RN in the triangulars will withdraw and “not a single vote must go to the RN”. But unity stops there. Of course, everyone repeats that next Sunday, in the second round, “it’s either the NFP or the RN”. But not everyone seems to believe it with the same force.
At LFI, we play it very slightly more positive. “The mood is not one of joy or sorrow, but it is a mood of combat,” assures Manuel Bompard, the coordinator of France Insoumise. Among the rebels, we think that the prospect of a “new Popular Front government” is more mobilizing between two rounds. It doesn’t matter if this prospect is extremely distant.
Tondelier calls for “a new republican front”
In the PS, among the Greens and the Communists – who also lost their leader Fabien Roussel in the first round – grimaces dominate more. The importance of the Republican front is given priority. And more emphasis is placed on the contribution of Macronist votes. Marine Tondelier, the leader of the Greens, herself spoke of a “new Republican front”: “It would be incomprehensible if some people continued not to differentiate between the left and the extreme right.”
“If there is no clear instruction from the Macronist camp, there will be an absolute majority of the RN,” assures Sébastien Vincini, president of Haute-Garonne, who places his hopes in excellent Macronist reports on the better placed NFP candidates. “That in dishonor they have a minimum of dignity,” asks the same.
