With just three weeks to go before France’s presidential election, hard-left leader Jean-Luc Mélenchon rallied tens of thousands of supporters on Sunday onto the streets of Paris, framing himself as the antidote to Emmanuel Macron by promising to raise the minimum wage, freeze food and fuel prices, and lower the retirement age.
Currently polling in third or fourth place in the presidential vote, Mélenchon – the head of La France Insoumise (France unbowed, or LFI) party and l'Union Populaire (Popular Union) – sought to unite left-leaning supporters at Sunday's rally after the falting performance of French Socialists in recent years.
An opponent of free-market economics, Mélenchon advocates state intervention to spread wealth and guarantee what he calls a dignified life for all workers.
"The free market, as you see, is chaos. Another world is possible," he told several thousand supporters in the Place de la Republique, promising he would tax the wealthy hard.
The 70-year-old has been called “Mélen-show” for his crowd-pulling rhetoric. Supporters chanted “We are going to win! Mélenchon! President!” ahead of the 45-minute speech during which he highlighted marked differences with incumbent Emmanuel Macron, who is currently ahead in the polls.
Retirement at 60
Mélenchon criticised Macron’s plans for different teaching methods in school and raising the retirement age from 62 to 65 as part of pension reform.
The leftist firebrand told the crowds he would lower the age of retirement from 62 to 60: “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."
Under Macron it will be “the end of the republican school, the end of the one and indivisible French people,” he claimed. “Vote [for me and] you will retire at 60!”
Leaving NATO
In his campaign manifesto, Mélenchon pledges to place controls on the movement of capital, guarantee jobs for the long-term unemployed and raise the minimum wage to €1,400 net per month.
The hard-left candidate wants to block future European Union free trade agreements and, more controversially, withdraw France from NATO and declare itself non-aligned.
Far-right pundit Eric Zemmour is also campaigning on an anti-NATO ticket, while hard-right leader Marine Le Pen, currently polling in second place, favours withdrawal from its integrated military command.
Their stance has lost some of its appeal, however, since the Russian invasion of Ukraine where transatlantic allies and EU partners appear more reassuring.
Third time lucky?
This is Mélenchon’s third attempt to reach the Elysée. His 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) scarcely audible and the Greens struggling to galvanise a wide support base, Mélenchon appealed to undecided voters and those who might otherwise abstain to back him.
In 2017, he failed to reach the runoff, in which Macron beat far-right challenger Marine Le Pen.
In December 2019 he was given a three-month suspended jail term and 8,000-euro fine for intimidating officials during a police raid on his home and party offices.
France’s first round of the presidential election takes place on 10 April. If no one candidate wins more than 50 percent of the vote, which has never happened, the two candidates with the most votes in the first round go into the 24 April runoff.
(with newswires)
