Last month, French President Macron announced early elections for the French National Assembly. That night, two words began to circulate on the Internet and in the media: Popular Front.
It refers to the left-wing alliance formed in the 1930s to resist the rise of fascism in Europe and at home. Now some of France’s main left-wing parties are uniting to fight what they see as a new danger: Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, which is closer than ever to taking power.
The left-wing alliance calls itself the “New Popular Front”.
“For the first time since Vichy, the far right is once again gaining the upper hand in France,” Socialist Party leader Olivier Faure told a large crowd recently, referring to the French government’s collusion with the Nazi occupiers during World War II.
Mr Macron decided to force elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, after Ms Le Pen’s party suffered a crushing defeat in last month’s European Parliament elections.
The left-wing party bloc, which had split just months earlier over personal and policy differences, responded by reuniting. Despite its hasty start, the New Popular Front came in second place in the first round of voting. The Front is just five percentage points behind the National Rally and its allies, while Mr Macron’s centrist Ennahda party and its allies are a distant third.
Since then, the New Popular Front has made it harder for the far right to take over. It established France’s so-called “Republican Front” or “Dam”, asking candidates running in three contests to withdraw to reduce the chances of a national rally victory in Sunday’s runoff. According to French media reports, more than 130 candidates and about 80 candidates from Macron’s party have withdrawn.
The latest polls predict the strategy may work. The National Assembly remains on track to win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, but may now fall short of the 289 seats needed for an absolute majority.
“Historically, when the far right threatens, the left always unites,” said Rémi Lefebvre, a professor of political science at the University of Lille. “That’s been people’s instinctive reaction since the 1930s.”
But many French are also worried about leftists, especially since France Informed, the largest party in the coalition, is known for its incendiary far-left politics. Some members have also been accused of anti-Semitism, notably the combative and divisive Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a long-time left-wing leader and founder of France’s Insurgent Movement.
“They want to be a dam that blocks national rallies. But what else happens?” said Nicole Bacharan, a political scientist who teaches at Sciences Po in Paris. “They ask people to march in Unknown world. “
How did the left divide and then come together again?
The French left, once powerful in France under the powerful Socialist Party, has been reduced in recent years to a fractious alliance between four parties: the Communist Party, the Socialists, the Greens and France Indochina. The coalition was first formed in 2022 and is dominated by France’s Insurgent Party, led by Mélenchon.
Mélenchon, a three-time presidential candidate and former Trotskyist, has taken on non-leadership roles in the new coalition, according to other members of the group.
Since the attack on Israel on October 7, Mélenchon has made no secret of his pro-Palestinian views, refusing to call Hamas a terrorist organization and strongly condemning Israel’s military operation in Gaza as “genocide.” He called the massive anti-Semitic demonstration attended by two former French presidents a gathering of “friends who unconditionally support the Holocaust.”
Mr Mélenchon has been repeatedly accused of fanning the flames of anti-Semitism amid a surge in attacks and threats against French Jews.
The alliance was already riddled with internal conflicts and eventually fell apart.
The knitting process lasted four crazy days and nights. “We are not sleeping,” said Pierre Jouvet, secretary-general of the Socialist Party and one of the main negotiators. “It’s a bit like what sailors do on long voyages, we take a nap for half an hour or 40 minutes and drink a lot of coffee.”
While fear of the far right plays a role in the shotgun political marriage, so does pragmatism. Frédéric Savitsky, a political science professor at the Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris, said that given the trajectory of the far right, it is likely that the left will lose many seats if it cannot function as a unit.
On day five, they presented an ambitious platform full of promises and apparent compromises in a group fundamentally divided on everything from involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to nuclear power.
The New Popular Front’s platform will raise France’s monthly minimum wage, lower the legal retirement age to 60 and freeze prices for basic necessities such as food, energy and natural gas. Rather than slashing immigration, as the far-right has promised, the coalition pledged to make the asylum process more generous and smoother.
The group will also push for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages, as well as “immediate recognition” of the Palestinian state. It also vowed to develop a government plan to combat anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Can the New Popular Front win?
Even if the New Popular Front could win, that is unlikely now that many of its candidates have dropped out.
Still, the left can gain enough votes to exert influence, especially if a coalition government is formed.
The group’s hope is not just to push back the far right, but to inherit the mantle of the original Popular Front, the real touchstone of the French left. For many, it was the pinnacle of what they could do and the pinnacle of their courage to look down on fascism.
The original Popular Front formed a government led by Léon Blum, who in 1936 became the country’s first socialist and Jewish prime minister. On his second day in office, he introduced a series of laws that revolutionized the lives of French workers, including two weeks of paid annual leave and a 40-hour working week.
The government lasted only two years. In 1943, under the Vichy government, Mr. Blum was sent to Buchenwald concentration camp, where he lived in a house outside the camp.
“The Popular Front government didn’t last long,” said Jean Vigreux, a history professor at the University of Burgundy in Dijon and the author of two books about the Popular Front, “but it changed lives. “
Macron, who has a deep hatred of the far left long before the far-left front defeated his party in last Sunday’s vote, was unsparing in his reaction to the formation of the new Popular Front, saying that Bloom “must be turning over in his grave” ”.
He called the front “far left” given its inclusion of France Not Surrender and said the party was as dangerous to the French Republic as the far right. Many voters agree. In the last two annual polls of French opinion carried out by Ipsos-Sopra Steria, 57% believed the party was a “danger to democracy” – more than the national rally.
The New Popular Front has refused to nominate a leader who would become prime minister if they win a majority or become part of a coalition government. But many of the alliance’s leaders have strongly reiterated that Mélenchon will not be the man. However, he refused to disqualify himself and repeatedly said he was “qualified” for the job.
Will boycotting national rallies work?
The National Rally is still expected to win the most seats, but resistance could prevent it from gaining the outright majority it covets.
It could also confuse the public and lead some voters to abstain from voting after months of invective from the left and center.
“Voters have a hard time understanding that they need to vote for someone who just a few days ago was described as hateful,” said Mr. Lefebvre, the political science professor.
National Rally president Jordan Bardella criticized the New Popular Front, calling its attempts to prevent the right from taking power undemocratic. “Do you think it is politically respectful to do everything possible to stop the movement that I lead on behalf of millions of French people?” he said in a television interview this week.
New Popular Front leaders refuted the claims.
“This is not a rejection of democracy. We strongly want to prevent the far right from entering France because we believe that the far right and Jordan Bardera are dangerous to France.” “
However, some analysts worry that if successful, the “Republican Front” will exacerbate the sense of abandonment described by many far-right supporters, who believe that their concerns are not heard by Macron’s government.
“This is the perverse effect of this approach,” said political scientist Ms. Bachalan. “Far-right voters hear ‘power must stay away from us.'”
Segolena Lestradic Contributing reporting from Paris
