Thursday, March 28

Historic electoral agreement between La Francia Insumisa de Mélenchon and the environmentalists


The La France Insumisa (LFI) party, whose candidate in the last presidential elections, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, was the most voted of those on the left, has reached a historic electoral agreement for the next legislative elections in June with the environmentalists, they have indicated both formations this Monday.

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The pact comes after weeks of negotiations between the two formations and against the backdrop of other possible agreements with the Socialist Party (PS) and the French Communist Party (PCF).

It is the first time that a party ideologically situated to the left of the PS reaches an electoral agreement with the ecologists and represents the union of the formations with the most votes in the first round of the presidential elections in April.

Mélenchon achieved almost 22% of the votes and was half a million votes short of overcoming the far-right Marine Le Pen and accessing the second round against the center-liberal Emmanuel Macron, who revalidated his mandate.

Yannick Jadot, the candidate of Los Verdes, was at the gates of 5% of the votes, but surpassed the communist Fabien Roussel, who obtained a little more than 2%, and the socialist Anne Hidalgo, who was below 2%. , while the Trotskyists Nathalie Arthaud and Philippe Poutou did not exceed 1%.

Both the LFI and the ecologists appealed to extend their electoral agreement to other left-wing formations, with whom there are open talks, in order to achieve a broad left-wing front that would make it possible to achieve an influential bloc in the June legislative elections.

That is the plan of Mélenchon, who after his defeat in the presidential elections asked for a majority in the National Assembly that forces Macron to appoint him prime minister and thus be able, in a cohabitation government, to apply progressive policies.

The agreement with the environmentalists allows them to present a hundred candidates in the legislative elections, out of the 577 that make up the chamber. The two parties agree on social measures, such as raising the minimum wage to 1,400 euros, bringing the retirement age forward at 60, blocking the prices of basic necessities or ecological planning.

The position towards the EU, the main stumbling block

The main stumbling block during the negotiations was the position regarding the European Union, between the Europeanism of the ecologists and the certain skepticism of Mélenchon. Finally, they included some of the proposals of the latter, which appeals to the disobedience of treaties, but they agreed to do so in accordance with the laws.

The final text indicates that both parties are “willing to disobey certain European rules”, such as the stability pact, the right to competition or the neoliberal guidelines of the Common Agrarian Policy (CAP), but to do so “with respect to the rule of law ”. All eyes are now focused on the PS, the traditionally hegemonic party on the French left, which is torn between the agreement, which its current leadership advocates, and its rejection, which is defended by some historical figures such as former president François Hollande, who considers that it would mean the disappearance of French social democracy.

For the current leader of the PS, Olivier Faure, joining the LFI and the ecologists is the only way to save a party that is adrift electorally and that seeks to preserve the 28 current deputies, which would allow them to obtain their own parliamentary group. The communists, for their part, are negotiating about 30 constituencies in order to improve the 11 seats they currently have.

The main stumbling block with this last party is its defense of nuclear energy, which is opposed by environmentalists and the LFI, although that point does not appear in the programmatic agreement they have reached, which is interpreted as an open door to the communists.



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