French leftists in talks on joint candidacy for legislative elections

The main left-wing parties in France have agreed this Monday to present a single candidacy in each constituency for the French legislative elections to be held on June 30 and July 7.

In a letter they distributed at the end of the meeting attended by La Francia Insumissa (LFI), the Socialists, Greens and Communists spoke of their “desire to present a program of social and ecological rupture” that confronts the Macronist project and the “racist” one of the extreme right.

Although there is no mention of a concrete agreement, the parties imply that they will negotiate a joint program and which candidates will represent them. This will be an extremely complex agreement. The submission of candidates for the elections ends on June 16.

“We will present a severance program for the first 100 days of the ‘new Popular Front’ government,” he said in the letter, referring to the left-wing coalition in France between 1936 and 1938.

As soon as President Emmanuel Macron announced his electoral lead on Sunday, following the landslide victory of Marine Le Pen’s far-right French left in the scant hours of socialist François Hollande’s five years in power (2012-2017), progressives rushed to launch a call for unity to revisit the short-lived formula of the NUPES coalition.

The coalition was launched in the 2022 legislative elections, with results below expectations – far from the promised majority – and integrated La Francia Insumisa, the Socialists, the Greens and the Communists, although it quickly dissolved due to internal differences.

As happened this Sunday, this Monday there were numerous youth demonstrations against the extreme right in large French cities, most of them spontaneous. In Paris, the march started at the Place de la République and then spread through the streets of the city.

The country’s main unions have announced a weekend of mobilisation against a hypothetical government led by the Lepenist far-right.