The Socialist Party (PS) of France has reached this Wednesday an agreement in principle to join the united front of the left. The proposal, which had been launched by the leader of La France Insumisa (LFFI), Jean-Luc Mélenchon, must be endorsed in the next few hours by its leading bodies, as indicated by several political leaders.
The deputy and spokesman for the LFI, Adrien Quatennens, has indicated on the radio France Info that the agreement will meet the distribution of constituencies for the legislative elections next June and a common program. Mélenchon’s party continues talks with the New Anti-Capitalist Party (NPA).
With the support of the socialists, the French left would reach 30% support
The possible incorporation of the Socialists would join the formations of the French left with LFI, the ecologists and the Communist Party of France (PCF), the latter two being included on the list on Monday and Tuesday, respectively.
The leader of LFI achieved the third position in the first round of the presidential elections in April with almost 22% of the votes of French citizens. Mélenchon’s group intends to unite the leftist formations with the aim of winning the legislative elections and forcing the president, Emmanuel Macron, to appoint as prime minister the French deputy.
Mélenchon’s support has joined the group of ecologists with less than 5% of the votes in the presidential elections, the communists with 2.28% and the recent incorporation, with the socialists, and a support of 1.74%. With the support of all these formations, the French left would reach 30% support.
Criticism against the Mélenchon agreement
The PS will present candidacies in 70 of the 577 constituencies in the country. The environmental group will do so with a hundred, the PCF with fifty and the rest will remain in the hands of LFI. The agreement, submitted to a vote by the PS National Committee, has generated a division among the party’s historical figures, who criticize having bowed to Mélenchon’s postulates to obtain some positions in the National Assembly.
Some of these figures such as former Prime Minister Bernard Cazeneuve or his counterpart Stéphan Le Foll they have threatened to leave the PS if the agreement is consolidated. The LFI leader has also been criticized by socialists for his anti-European stance or his proximity to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The party of the French deputy has called for disobedience in European treaties, a point that had raised doubts for environmentalists, who did not agree with the advancement of the retirement age. In the same way it happens with the energy question, the LFI and the environmentalists propose to reduce the nuclear issue energetically, unlike the PCF that try to promote it.
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