French Greens, far-left party in deal before June elections
France’s Greens and the party of far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon have reached an agreement to join forces against newly reelected President Emmanuel Macron ahead of next month’s parliamentary election
Your support helps us to tell the story
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it's investigating the financials of Elon Musk's pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, 'The A Word', which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Your support makes all the difference.France's Greens and the party of far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon reached an agreement Monday to join forces against newly reelected President Emmanuel Macron ahead of next month's parliamentary election.
Both parties agreed not to compete against each other in the two rounds of voting on June 12 and 19.
Mélenchon leads the La France Insoumise (France Unbowed) party and he came in third in the first round of last month's presidential election. He is now hoping for a comeback in the upcoming legislative elections as the head of what he hopes will be a coalition of leftist parties who have spent the past five years in Macron's shadow.
Mélenchon's third-place finish in April with 22% of the vote in the first round of voting gave him leverage in trying to rally other parties on the left behind him for the legislative vote.
Under the deal that his party struck on Monday with the Greens, the environmental party will field candidates in 100 districts where Melenchon’s party won’t run, so they don’t compete against each other. The Greens agreed that if the coalition wins a parliamentary majority, then they’d back Melenchon as prime minister.
The Communist and Socialist parties also appear close to a deal with Melenchon’s party.
Socialists, however, have been deeply divided about whether to also join the coalition. Some have publicly denounced Mélenchon’s views that France should “disobey” EU rules, including free-market regulations.
___
More on France’s 2022 elections at https://apnews.com/hub/french-election-2022