By Walter Mendiluza
Correspondent of Prensa Latina in France
La France Insumisa (LFI) and European ecology parties The Greens (EELV), Communist (PCF) and Socialist (PS) have reached an agreement ahead of June’s general election that will allow them to nominate candidates from the bloc in the 577 constituencies . Equivalent to the seats in the Bourbon Palace, the most powerful instance in the parliamentary sphere on Gallic soil.
With a first ballot on June 12 and a second seven days later, the election campaign will again rally nearly 49 million voters, less than two months before Emmanuel Macron’s re-election.
The outcome of those presidential elections, in which the rebellious Jean-Luc Mélenchon, with 22 percent of the vote, just one point behind the far-right Marine Le Pen, largely determined the distribution of seats, not without polishing debates differences and approach criteria that a distribution among other broader terms suggested.
Thus, on May 7, Nupes became official at the Paris docks with 330 candidates from the LFI, which currently has 17 MPs: 100 from the EELV, with no seats in the assembly; 70 from the PS (28) and 50 from the PCF (15).
Whatever happens in the elections, no one in France doubts that the left will far exceed the discreet figure of 60 seats in the chamber, although the goal is to capture it, a formidable challenge.
“The people who really fight and want to open Mr (Emmanuel) Macron’s policy are voting for Nupes. The rest is useless,” Mélenchon said on Sunday’s Grand Jury RTL-LCI-Le Figaro on May 22.
The lead candidate celebrated the rise of the bloc in the polls, favorite for first-round leadership, although polls show government coalition Together as eventual winners in the second round, even retaining a majority in the National Assembly.
AMBITIOUS PROGRAM
Nupes has clearly defined goals: to dominate the chamber, to stop the policies of re-elected President Macron, who would find it difficult to further his minority agenda, and to stop the far right led by Marine Le Pen, who, despite their fall, got into the ballot , received the support of 13 million French.
The United Left’s program proposes raising the minimum wage to 1,500 euros, a return to the retirement age of 60, guarantees of autonomy for young people, eradicating poverty, blocking the price increase of essential products and more the development of public services, rejecting privatization .
With these initiatives, the left is trying to assert itself as a real alternative in a context where the loss of purchasing power dominates the concerns of French citizens.
It also defends the implementation of genuine ecological planning, responding to the climatic and ecological urgencies, translated into the introduction of new indicators of human progress and a “green rule”.
Likewise, the Nupes platform offers equal pay for men and women and concrete measures to combat gender-based violence.
The program generally involves the end of what it defines as a presidential monarchy to give way to the Sixth Republic in France, in which there would be room for popular initiative and the leading role of local groups and social movements, unions and associations.
In dialogue with Prensa Latina, the candidate for the general elections, Christian Rodríguez, summarized the proposal as a way to build a better world, justice and social justice.
Our program is credible, another world is still possible, affirmed the rebellious leader and candidate for Nupes in the second constituency of French Abroad, for Latin America and the Caribbean.
Rodríguez showed confidence in the victory, which he felt was necessary to change course and halt the deterioration in people’s living conditions, which he attributed to official politics.
Born in Chile and Head of International Relations at LFI, stressed the urgency of defending public services and social services from the position of MP, particularly the French in Latin America, as well as betting on environmental diplomacy and building local governments.
For his part, the national secretary of the communists, Fabien Roussel, in statements to the local media, celebrated the agreement and his commitment to defending the French and the environment, without this implying abandoning the positions of the parties.
We have things in common and also respect our differences, the French Communist Party will always exist, which will have its faction and freedom of speech, he stressed.
THREAT FROM THE FAR RIGHT
The French left is warning of the looming rise of the far right, which explains why its leaders have been calling for a vote against Le Pen ever since the results of the first round of the presidential election were announced, demonstrating their distance from Macron’s proposals.
For Laurence Cohen, a communist senator from the department of Val-de-Marne, the threat of the far right and fascism is global and requires a response.
We saw in France in April’s presidential election that the Front National, now called the National Group, took part in the polls for the third time, so the ideological battle to be waged is remarkable, he warned in an interview with Prensa Latina.
The senator stressed the unity of the left in Nupes and the hope for the struggle it represents, not only to stop fascist ideas but also to achieve a break with ultra-liberal and capitalist politics.
It is this policy that favors the spread of the extreme right, he criticized.
Cohen expressed his expectation that the general elections on June 12-19 will see many MPs from the left in the National Assembly, so the fight for another country and another world will continue from the plenary hall.
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