The French New Popular Front has a plan to govern

Nouveau Front PopularAnd He was officially born on the night of June 13. The four main French left-wing forces have closed a broad coalition aimed at defeating Marine Le Pen’s Rassemblement National in the next early elections and laying the foundations for a breakaway government.

France Insoumise, the Parti Socialiste, the Parti Communiste and Les Ecologistes will present a common group of candidates in France’s 577 constituencies for the first round of elections on June 30. In the June 9 European elections, which Jordan Bardella’s Rassemblement National list won with a double-digit lead over any of its rivals, persistent divisions on the left prevented such a pact. The far right’s historic victory forced President Emmanuel Macron to announce the dissolution of the National Assembly in a surprise move on Sunday night.

On June 14, the leaders of the left-wing parties met at a conference center near the National Assembly to outline a 150-measure “legislative contract” that constitutes the coalition’s political platform. “We are going to govern to change people’s lives,” said Marine Tondelier, president of the Ecologist, as she and the rest of the left-wing coalition leadership exchanged microphones. They presented the main axes of the government program that include a rise in the minimum wage, investments in public services, the repeal of Macron’s pension reform by 2023, the reinstatement of taxes on the wealthiest and progress towards an “ecological plan.”

Its leaders promise to cooperate closely with social movements to build a lasting alliance against the extreme right.

Faced with the imminent prospect of a far-right government, the Nouveau Front Populaire is more than a survival pact between parties. Its leaders promise to cooperate closely with social movements and unions to build a lasting alliance against the extreme right. Following the statements of the party leadership, a union member of the General Confederation of Labor (CGT) at the Stellantis automobile factory that recently closed in the suburbs of Paris offered the coalition his “full support”. He was followed by the director of Greenpeace France, who praised the Popular Front program for being “up to the challenge of transforming society” and pledged to take it into account.

After NUPES

The often feuding French left-wing parties had to overcome many obstacles to achieve this agreement. The Nouveau Front Populaire is largely a Revival The Nouveau Union Populaire Ecologique et Sociale (NUPES) coalition, formed on the eve of the June 2022 legislative elections, denied Macron an absolute majority in the National Assembly. But this pact, always shaky, was definitively shattered after the Hamas-directed attacks on October 7 and the Israeli invasion of the Gaza Strip. The fact that these forces have been able to come together less than a week after facing each other in the European elections has surprised many, perhaps even Macron, whose call for an early election was designed to take advantage of the fractures of the French left.

The fact that they were able to meet less than a week after facing each other at the European Championship surprised many, perhaps even Macron.

The European Union (EU) elections on June 9 threaten to further escalate the confrontation between the center-left Socialist Party and France Insoumise, the lead party in the NUPES coalition and the biggest left-wing force in parliament. A re-energized Parti Socialiste hopes to be able to point to its relative success in the June 9 vote (in which it rose from 6% to 14%) as justification for marginalizing France Insoumise (which won 10% less than in 2022, although more than in the last vote in the 2019 European elections). There is a new “balance of power,” Raphaël Glucksmann, the Parti Socialiste’s main candidate in the European elections, said in a television interview on Monday night, when the left-wing leadership was meeting to negotiate the initial outlines of a deal.

Coalition talks were briefly suspended on Thursday morning, mainly due to the division of parliamentary constituencies, but also due to disputes over the core elements of the coalition program. In the first round on June 30, France Insoumise candidates will run for 229 seats, followed by 175 of the Parti Socialiste, 92 of the Ecologistes and 50 of the Parti Communiste. This distribution reflects a shift slightly away from France Insoumise, mainly in favor of the Parti Socialiste.

Other points of tension were the platform’s reference to Hamas as a “terrorist” organisation and the war in Ukraine. The reaction of France Insoumise on 7 October, which the party refused to call a terrorist attack, was the immediate trigger for the Parti Socialiste to leave the NUPES coalition last autumn.

But these divisions only obscured an obvious fact: without unity, French left-wing parties will have no chance in these early elections, which will likely lead to a victory for the Rassemblement National. Thousands of people in Paris and other cities rallied for several nights demanding left-wing unity. And now they have a political program to mobilize around.

first day

Although it contains few changes compared to the 2022 NUPES platform, the “legislative contract” proposed by the Nouveau Front Populaire presents a comprehensive program of democratic reforms. The left’s plan is divided into three phases. In the first fifteen days of a left-wing government, a series of “emergency” measures are planned, such as an immediate increase in the minimum wage to 1,600 euros per month after taxes, a reduction in the prices of essential products such as the energy bill, investment in social housing and the rejection of EU deficit spending rules, although without reaffirming France Insoumise’s previous mantra of “disobeying” the EU treaties.

The first hundred days will lay the foundations for a proposed “change of course” through five legislative packages covering purchasing power, education, the health system, the “ecology plan” and the “abolition of citizens’ privileges”. The following months – entitled “transformation” – will see the permanent strengthening of public services, the right to housing, ecological reindustrialisation, reforms to the police and criminal justice systems and constitutional changes resulting in the establishment of a “sixth republic” to replace the current quasi-monarchical presidency.

The Left’s “legislative contract” will clearly be broken Leitmotif In the Macron years: attacks on welfare state protections and the erosion of public services in favour of a transfer of economic power to the richest. A new left-wing government would tighten Macron’s unemployment insurance system, the latest version of which is due to come into force this summer. The plan also provides for pay rises for public sector workers and free lunches in school cafeterias from next September. In the first fortnight, it would cancel the raising of the retirement age from sixty-two to sixty-four in 2022, ordered by Macron. However, the programme appears to backtrack on France Insoumise’s promise to return the retirement age to sixty.

If elected, the Popular Front would make the biggest policy shift by a Western power in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 7 October.

The left’s plan proposes to reinstate several outdated tax regimes. The coalition calls for the revival of a wealth tax on large fortunes, which was replaced by a smaller, less progressive tax on real estate assets early in Macron’s presidency. It also calls for the reinstatement of a canceled “exit tax” on the withdrawal of wealth from the country, as well as a new flat tax on capital gains. With companies like French oil giant Total making windfall profits since the pandemic-triggered energy crisis, the coalition is also demanding a new tax on “super profits.”

If elected, the Popular Front will make the biggest policy change by a Western power in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict since 7 October. The agreement calls for an immediate ceasefire in Israel’s war in Gaza, as well as the release of all Israeli hostages in the Gaza Strip and Palestinian political prisoners held in Israeli jails. To put pressure on Israel, he is going to suspend the arms embargo and the EU Association Agreement with the Israeli state. Defining the Hamas attacks of 7 October as “terrorist”, he will seek sanctions against the government of Benjamin Netanyahu and work to enforce possible arrest warrants from the International Criminal Court against Israeli officials, including the current head of the Israeli government. Working within the framework of a two-state solution to the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, the left-wing coalition calls for the “immediate recognition” of the Palestinian state.

Also in international politics, the coalition agreement states that it “unconditionally supports the sovereignty and independence of the Ukrainian people as well as the integrity of its borders.” It will seek to secure the delivery of new weapons, the forgiveness of Ukrainian foreign debt and the seizure of property in France owned by Russian oligarchs.

Horror Stories

In the coming weeks, the Nouveau Front Populaire and its “legislative contract” will surely be the target of countless slanders. Macron’s allies and experts of all kinds will indeed tell horror stories about a French exit from the EU or an imminent financial crisis. With regard to the conflict between Israel and Palestine, others will argue that anti-Semitism is about to become official state policy. Centrists will mourn the left-wing coalition still under pressure from France Insoumise, and make elaborate moral arguments about why voting for it is just as dangerous as voting for Le Pen.

It is not inconceivable, far from it, that the Popular Front becomes the main rival to the Rassemblement National. Polls show this is plausible or even probable. But more than a simple response to Le Pen, he comes with a detailed and far-reaching plan for a different government.

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This topic was originally posted on Jacobin. Translated from Florencia Oroz for the Jacobinlat.