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April 15, 2012 7:28 pm

France faces revival of radical left

By Hugh Carnegy in Marseilles


Jean-Luc Mélenchon's outdoor rallies have easily rivalled those of Nicolas Sarkozy (above), the president, and François Hollande, the Socialist candidate, in numbers and intensity

A powerful revival of France’s radical left, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a former socialist minister, and with a resurgent Communist party at its core, looks poised to be one of the most striking outcomes of next Sunday’s first round of voting in the country’s presidential election.

Mr Mélenchon, who has emerged from relative obscurity to become the most dynamic figure in the campaign, reinforced his dramatic rise at the weekend, drawing tens of thousands of red flag waving supporters from across the country to a rally at the Prado beach in the Mediterranean port of Marseilles on Saturday.
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“We are writing a page in the history of the left. We are the renaissance of the left,” he declared to roars from the crowd, chanting “Resistance! Resistance!”

The question is what effect a strong showing by Mr Mélenchon could have, particularly on François Hollande, the mainstream Socialist party candidate who is favourite to win the Elysée in the decisive second round of the election on May 6.

At the heart of Mr Mélenchon’s campaign, which brings together his own Left party, the Communist party of France and other far left groups under the banner of the Left Front, is an outright rejection of the austerity policies pursued across the European Union, including France, in response to the sovereign debt crisis.

It is a message that has resonated widely: Mr Mélenchon’s outdoor rallies have easily rivalled those of Nicolas Sarkozy, the president, and Mr Hollande in numbers and intensity; his poll ratings have soared from 5 per cent two months ago to as high as 17 per cent in recent surveys, suggesting that he could even come in third behind Mr Sarkozy and Mr Hollande, who have pledged to stick to tough targets to reduce France’s budget deficit and high public debt.

“The main reason is because [Mélenchon] is the only one not submitting to the policy of austerity. He’s saying no to cuts in public spending,” said Julie Castanier, a Young Communist party activist, as she stood in the Prado crowd. “He is the only one who is saying this and we have been waiting for it for a long time.”

Mr Mélenchon has dubbed the Socialist candidate ‘Hollandreou’ – likening Mr Hollande to George Papandreou, the former socialist Greek prime minister forced to resign last year as he came under pressure from his eurozone partners to enforce stringent budget measures.

His policies, including rescinding the new EU fiscal discipline treaty, raising the minimum wage from €1,200 to €1,700 a month and confiscating all income above €360,000 a year, go far beyond even Mr Hollande’s proposal to tax income above €1m at 75 per cent.

Mr Mélenchon quit the Socialist party in 2008 but the charismatic former Trotskyite has succeeded in mobilising support across the radical left, tapping into a long tradition of revolutionary politics that remains strong in France. It includes a strong revival in the fortunes of the Communist party, out of power since the 1980s, and whose candidate in 2007 won under 2 per cent of the vote.

“If Mélenchon gets 12-13 per cent of the vote it will be extraordinary,” said Jean Chiche of Sciences Po university. “It will change the balance of forces on the left. It will give force back to the communists, who have been moribund for years.”

The Mélenchon surge is undoubtedly awkward for Mr Hollande, who will need Left Front supporters to vote for him in the second round to secure victory – without scaring off centrist voters. Mr Sarkozy has said Mr Hollande has become a hostage to Mr Mélenchon and the communists.

Mr Hollande has said he will not negotiate on policy with the Left Front. But he has left the door open to having figures from the group in his government.

However, Mr Mélenchon, and the Communist party, have said they intend to build a strong parliamentary group in the national assembly elections in June, to allow them to continue to push their hardline policy positions, rather than participate in a government committed to the budgetary strictures accepted by Mr Hollande.

That would potentially make life difficult for a Hollande government balancing the demands of the financial markets and its eurozone partners with pressure from a revitalised left at home.

As Mr Mélenchon said, mocking Mr Hollande’s own reassurance, in English, to the City of London that he was “not dangerous”: “We are very dangerous!”


www.ft.com . . .


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yeah, he's the mirror image of romney. Not dangerous, won't get elected.

Austerity is all they have left. Can't follow Obama's way of adding trillions of new debt a year. That's a disaster waiting to happen.

I notice I didn't see a word about the EUrinal and the Zeuro.

Which was why the whole project was always going to FAIL.

National self interest of individual countries will always trump the EU when the chips are down.

But it will especially declicious that Red Fwance will finally break it.

TexanForever wrote:


Jean-Luc Mélenchon's outdoor rallies have easily rivalled those of Nicolas Sarkozy (above), the president, and François Hollande, the Socialist candidate, in numbers and intensity

A powerful revival of France’s radical left, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a former socialist minister, and with a resurgent Communist party at its core, looks poised to be one of the most striking outcomes of next Sunday’s first round of voting in the country’s presidential election.

I bucked the trend with a public call to all French FF members to vote for comrade Mélenchon:



Pourquoi j'appelle à voter Mélenchon

Austerity is ridiculous. He has good points below, the trouble is believing him. He is just out to stop Marine Le Pen

Jean-Luc Mélenchon (French pronunciation: [ʒɑ̃ lyk melɑ̃ʃɔ̃]; born 19 August 1951 in Tangier, French Morocco)[1] is a French politician who served in the government of France as Minister of Vocational Education from 2000 to 2002. He was also a member of the French Senate, representing the département of Essonne.

well, he did fuck all then, I suspect he'll do the same now. He's Billy Bragg with Baguettes.

Born in Tangier, he was educated at the Lycée Pierre-Corneille in Rouen.[4]

His father worked in the postal services, and his Spanish-born mother was a primary school teacher. He grew up in Morocco, until his family moved to France in 1962.[1]

With a degree in Philosophy from the University of Franche-Comté, and having gained the CAPES (a professional teaching qualification), he became a teacher before entering politics.[1][4]
[edit] Political ideas

Jean-Luc Mélenchon is a socialist republican and historical materialist, inspired primarily by Jean Jaurès (the founder of French republican socialism) and employing Marxian analysis to understand the crisis of market capitalism. Although representing the Left Front, in which the French Communist Party is the largest party, he is not himself a Communist.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon (right) with Olivier Besancenot (left) and José Bové (centre) at a meeting to rally support for the "No" vote in the European Constitution referendum of 2005.

Previously a defender of European federalism, Jean-Luc Mélenchon has renounced that political commitment, declaring that "the European Union is no longer a solution but a problem, because economic liberalism has totally corrupted the institution and makes it impossible to achieve the democratic change needed in the EU, all power belonging to technocrats with no popular legitimacy." For this reason, he is for the establishment of a different, democratic, united, and cooperative Europe, and is opposed to the Lisbon Treaty as well as questioning the independence of the European Central Bank.

Based on his experiences in South America, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, like Hugo Chavez and Evo Morales, favours a "citizens' revolution" (révolution citoyenne), drawing additionally on ideas stemming from the French Revolution and the Paris Commune, and a new strategy that respects the democratic process while seeking to win elections in order to change the constitution. This "citizens' revolution" should lead to a reversal of the current division of wealth held by capital, represented by shareholders, and the working class (understood in the broad sense of anyone who actually works to earn money directly). Additional goals include a new constitution that will initiate a 6th French Republic in which the President will have less power and Parliament more, increase wages, a public bank created by nationalizing the private banks, democratization through the establishment of new rights for employees allowing them to develop cooperatives, the nationalization of large corporations, environmental planning, an exit from NATO, an end to the war in Afghanistan, and peace in the Middle East through the creation of a Palestinian state. Jean-Luc Mélenchon also insists on the importance of "popular involvement" through public referendums on any essential subject.

He is the candidate representing the Left Front (Communists, Left Party, Unitarian Left) in the 2012 French presidential election.[5][6]
[edit] 2012 French presidential candidate

Hey Alan if people want your opinion they would visit your site instead of you visiting this one.

muhad_eezbaq wrote:

yeah, he's the mirror image of romney. Not dangerous, won't get elected.

I'd say Romney has about a 50/50 chance of getting elected.

If gas prices and economy keep going they way they are, I think he has the edge among likely voters.

No US President has ever been reelected with such a shit economy.

tom25 wrote:

Hey Alan if people want your opinion they would visit your site instead of you visiting this one.

Tom, your attempt at getting Ks at my expense has failed thus far. I hope it improves for you as time recedes as it may do

tom25 wrote:

Hey Alan if people want your opinion they would visit your site instead of you visiting this one.

K for that.

tom25 wrote:

Hey Alan if people want your opinion they would visit your site instead of you visiting this one.

Well I'll let you know people do visit my site, and they still don't want my opinion.

You make a comment at me with one account and made another comment with another account. That is real sad dude.