The “Popular Front” of the French left begins to move to stop Le Pen with a first pact

The threat of a repeat of what happened in the European elections in France In the upcoming legislative elections, it is forcing all parties to move quickly in the face of the imminent elections. Before him overwhelming result of the National Group (AN) of Marine Le Pen, the left-wing parties have begun to shape an alliance, a new ‘Popular Front’ that serves as a retaining wall to the advance of the far right.

The main members of this leftist alliance, The Rebellious France (LFI) and the Socialist Party (PS), announced this Wednesday, separately, that they had reached “a principle of agreement” to present a single candidacy in each constituency for the legislative elections that are held on June 30 and July 7,

According to Le Mondethe Socialist Party has addressed a letter to its members in which it announces that it has reached an agreement with the rest of the leftist forces -LFI, the Greens and the Communists- on the distribution of the number of candidacies for deputies that correspond to each constituency electoral.

In this letter, the socialists emphasize that “the essential work on the program is still under discussion” and defend that there will be “no concessions” on the “values” of the party.

He agreement reached with the rest of the formations, as revealed by the socialists and disclosed by LFI to the press, contemplates that Jean-Luc Mélenchon’s La Francia Insumisa presents 229 candidacies for the French National Assembly, the Socialist Party itself another 175, the environmentalists 92 candidacies and the Communist Party another 50. This principle of agreement does not include Corsica or the overseas regions.

The rebirth of the ‘Popular Front’

These four leftist formations They have already joined forces in 2022 under the Nupes brand with less success than they expected. Now after Le Pen’s rise in the European elections, they intend to repeat the formula, this time under the name of ‘Popular Front’, in allusion to the left-wing coalition that governed France between 1936 and 1938, born to confront the fascism then expanding in Europe.

The left has until this Sunday to fully agree, which will not be easy. The two main formations, socialists and LFI, maintain discrepancies on issues such as Ukraine or the Middle East in addition to being the first Europhiles and the others Eurosceptics. The name of the candidates is also predicted to be another of the main obstacles.

The announcement last Sunday by the French president, Emmanuel Macronto advance the legislative elections after the resounding victory of the National Group (AN) in the European elections has shaken the French political board. While the left regroups, the traditional right has imploded this Wednesday. The Republicans have been forced to expel its leader Éric Ciotti for urging an alliance with Le Pen.

For its part, Macron denounces the “alliances against nature” on the right and the left of the political board and promises to expand the base of what has been its liberal majority in response to the two blocs that include the extreme right and the extreme left in the face of the early legislative elections.

The polls, for the moment, smile at Le Pen. According to the latest poll for the BFMTV channel and La Tribune, the National Rally (RN) would add 31%, followed by 28% on the left, while Macron’s majority would remain at 18%. This result would leave the extreme right one step away from the absolute majority of the Lower House, located at 289 seats.