French left party LFI unveils EU election list

Radical-left La France Insoumise (LFI, GUE/NGL) unveiled its EU election list on Wednesday, and although it remains incomplete and has yet to be voted on by party members, it includes all outgoing MEPs as well as some new faces.

In its list, LFI reappointed its outgoing MEPs, including Aubry, Younous Omarjee, Marine Mesure, Leila Chaibi and Emmanuel Maurel, and less familiar faces.

“It’s a list that reflects all the battles we have fought and will continue to fight,” said Manon Aubry, co-president of The Left in the EU Parliament and head of the LFI list, during the press conference.

The list unveiled by the party is supposed to be a “people’s union”, Aubry added.

New faces include Anthony Smith, a labour inspector, who expressed the “immense honour” of being on the list on X, and Franco-Palestinian lawyer Rima Hassan, known for her defence of the Palestinian cause, although she refuses to be called an activist.

Arash Saeidi, coordinator of the French left-wing Génération-s party, is also joining the list.

“Faced with the irresponsible gamble of division, I choose to unite around the NUPES programme by committing myself to the list led by Manon Aubry,” he wrote on X.

Two former Green lawmakers also feature on the list: former Green/EFA MEP Damien Carême and Camille Hachez, former national leader of the Young Ecologists.

At the moment, however, the list still has two slots that need to be filled and needs to be approved by LFI members before 15 March to be confirmed on 16 March.

In the latest IFOP poll for Le Journal du Dimanche on Monday, LFI and the Greens were polling 8%.

(Paul Messad & Clara Bauer-Babef | Euractiv.fr)