Jean-Luc Mélenchon
PARIS, June 18 (NNN-AGENCIES) — There were times, during the elections here five years ago, when President Emmanuel Macron would sound almost messianic about the potential of his political party and his project for France.
This time around, with run-off votes for more than 570 parliamentary seats due on Sunday, his comments have the feel of a doomsday warning.
“Nothing would be worse than losing ourselves in blockages, and adding disorder in France to global disorder,” Macron said this week.
Last Sunday, a new green-left alliance finished neck and neck with Macron’s allies in the first round of voting. If they continue to do well this weekend, they could deny the president a majority in parliament, making it harder for his government to act.
The new alliance, called Nupes (New Ecological and Social Popular Union) brings together Socialists, Communists and Greens under the leadership of France’s far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
They’re focusing on climate change and social solidarity, though many of their members openly admit to big policy differences on other issues.
Analysts say they’re highly unlikely to win a majority themselves, but Nupes candidate in Toulouse, François Piquemal, insisted that with more than 400 candidates running in the second round, nothing was impossible.
“Mathematically it’s possible,” he said. “And in politics, from the moment things are mathematically possible, we can achieve them. Three months ago people thought it was impossible for all the components of the left to come together behind a common programme. That is what’s happening today.”
It’s the kind of zeal that gripped Macron’s candidates last time. And even gains short of a majority could still spell trouble for Macron’s government.
Nupes is predicted to win between 150-200 seats. Some government candidates have already pointed to the “trouble” and disruption caused by Mélenchon’s 17 MPs in the last parliament.
Five years ago it was Macron’s allies who led the first round of voting in most of the region’s constituencies; now Mélenchon’s candidates are leading in 80% of them.
Pollster Edouard Lecerf says it’s hard to predict how the new alliance will respond to the rough and tumble of parliament.
“I don’t know if Nupes MPs are going to act like cats who need herding,” he told me. “Or like sheep, following what someone says; or dogs who just bark all the time. Maybe a mix.”
These 577 mini-elections across France can sometimes feel like one giant battle between two personalities: Mélenchon and Macron.
Politics here may have changed in the past five years, but it still hasn’t settled.
In just a couple of months, between the presidential race and the parliamentary one, the pendulum of opposition has swung from far right to far left, from Marine Le Pen to Jean-Luc Mélenchon. — NNN-AGENCIES
