Three weeks before France’s presidential election, far-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon on Sunday rallied tens of thousands of supporters on the streets of Paris, framing himself as the anti-Emmanuel Macron candidate by vowing to lower the retirement age, raise the minimum wage and freeze food and fuel prices.
Polling in third or fourth place in the presidential vote, Mélenchon – the head of La France Insoumise (France unbowed, or LFI) party, who has been called “Mélen-show” for his crowd-attracting rhetoric – rallied at the Place de la République in central Paris to unite left-leaning supporters after a series of stumbles by French Socialists in recent years.
“We are going to win! Mélenchon! President!” chanted supporters ahead of a 45-minute speech during which the rebellious leftist highlighted contrasts with Macron, the incumbent president currently topping polls. The 70-year-old criticised Macron’s plan for different teaching methods in school and backed lowering the retirement age from 62 to 60. Macron wants to raise the retirement age to 65 to balance the pension bill.
“The time has come for a collective decision, to put people first, and [in] whose service the economy must be, and not the other way around,” Mélenchon told the crowd.
Under Macron, he said, it will be “the end of the républican school, the end of the one and indivisible French people,” he claimed. “Vote [for me and] you will retire at 60!”
Wants to pull France out of NATO
Mélenchon has also pledged to place controls on the movement of capital, guarantee jobs for the long-term unemployed and a minimum wage of €1,400 net per month.
The hard-left candidate also wants to withdraw France from NATO and block future European Union free trade agreements.
Mélenchon’s campaign received a boost this month when left-winger and feminist icon Christiane Taubira exited the race. With the traditional centre-left Parti Socialiste (Socialist Party) verging on irrelevance and the Greens struggling to galvanise a wide support base, Mélenchon appealed to undecided voters and those who might otherwise abstain to back him.
Campaign officials said around 100,000 people attended the rally.
France’s first round of the presidential election takes place on April 10. If no one candidate wins more than 50% of the vote [which has never happened], the April 24 runoff will decide the winner between two finalists who won the most votes in the first round.
In 2017, the charismatic Mélenchon failed to reach the presidential runoff, in which Macron beat far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
(FRANCE 24 with AP, REUTERS)
