Europe Ecologie Les Verts (EELV) and Jean Luc Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise reached on Sunday an agreement to set up a joint programme and share electoral districts in the upcoming legislative elections.
The “New Popular Ecological and Social Union” aims to obtain a left-wing majority in June’s legislative vote which will see French voters elect 577 members of the National Assembly.
If this were to happen, the newly re-elected President Emmanuel Macron would be forced to appoint a prime minister and government that would be politically opposed to him.
A common programme
The two left-wing parties have negotiated a government programme that includes an increase in the minimum wage to €1,400, fixing the legal retirement age to 60, and “freezing the prices of essential goods as well as eradicating poverty”.
The environment and its protection are also at the heart of the project through the implementation of “ecological planning” and a “golden climate rule”.
On the institutional level, the Greens agree on the “establishment of a Sixth Republic” to overcome “presidentialism” and introduce the “citizens’ initiative referendum”, which are proposals that Mélenchon has traditionally supported.
For a European “disobedience”
To build an “ecological and social” Europe, the Greens and the Insoumis advocate moving away from the “neoliberal and productivist approach of the European Union”.
The ecologists, who have always been very pro-European, were keen to specify that “France’s policy cannot be to leave the Union, to disintegrate it or to end the single currency”.
However, certain rules could be set aside to respect “the imperatives of the ecological and social emergency”, including competition and budgetary norms, such as the Stability Pact, which governs fiscal and budgetary policy, and “the productivist neo-liberal orientations of the Common Agricultural Policy”.
At an international level, the joint press release states that “antiglobalist cooperation” will be sought “to act for a world that respects human rights, democracy and the fight against climate change”.
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The attempt to unite the left
This agreement starts a union of the left, which gained momentum during the presidential elections. In the first round of the presidential poll, Mélenchon’s movement and the Greens obtained 21.95% and 4.63% of the vote.
Together, they represent the majority of the votes cast for the left. Still, the leaders of the radical left movement have indicated their desire to include the communists and socialists in their coalition, with whom negotiations are ongoing.,
With the French Communist Party scoring 2.28% and the Socialist Party scraping 1.75% in the presidential elections, their bargaining power is limited, but they are more strongly established at the local level than their potential coalition partners.
If the PCF and the PS were to join the coalition, it would represent a landmark moment for the French left.
Fabien Roussel from the Communist Party said on Monday (2 May) on broadcaster France Info that he “strongly hopes” to reach an agreement with the Insoumis “in the next few hours”. Welcoming the agreement between the Greens and the radical left, he added that “there is only one plan A, it is to gather and manage to build this great coalition of the left”.
The Socialists are more divided than their rivals on the question of rallying alongside Mélenchon, and the point that causes the most tension is the concept of “disobedience” to European rules.
Electoral implications?
From a strictly electoral point of view, the agreement organises the sharing of nominations in the 577 constituencies for the election of deputies to avoid competition between left-wing candidates.
The Greens have obtained 100 constituencies, 30 of which are “winnable”. Currently, there is no Green group in the National Assembly, but ten MPs are from the EELV party or have joined it in recent years and months.
The agreement also provides that if the Socialists do not join the coalition, EELV will take over the electoral districts intended for them.
According to several corroborating sources, the Insoumis would offer the communists 50 electoral districts in total.
Two hundred eighty-nine deputies would need to be elected under the colours of the New Popular Ecological and Social Union to obtain a majority in the National Assembly.
According to several experts on the French political system and elections contacted by EURACTIV France recently, this is highly unlikely, but a left-wing alliance would improve its chances.
Left-wing majority at French parliament polls 'highly unlikely'
Though negotiations continue on an alliance between France’s leftist parties ahead of June’s legislative elections, the prospect of a left-wing majority in June remains remote, both for experts and the leaders of the left.
Macron’s supporters are aware of this, and they are concerned that a massive popular movement would support this leftist union and prevent them from governing freely from June onwards.
Macron’s camp also seeks to attract the socialists and ecologists who do not want a union with the radical left. However, it is not sure that the liberal orientation of Macron will appeal to them more than Mélenchon.
The leftist alliance is favoured by left-wing sympathisers, and among left-wing voters in the first round, an overwhelming majority favour it.
“This agreement is exceptional, but it is up to the French to make it a historic moment”, said Julien Bayou, National Secretary of EELV, on BFMTV-RMC on Monday morning, adding that he hopes to be able to include the Socialists and Communists in the coming days.
[Edited by Benjamin Fox]
Source: euractiv.com
