If you want to know the deep values that drive someone, sometimes you have to look at who they admire, who they throw under the bus and who they refuse to unreservedly condemn. For the French far-left firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon, it should by now be clear. After all, the head of the leftwing opposition alliance has been in politics for four decades, and a senator since 1986. He stood as a radical left alternative to Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen in the 2022 presidential elections and almost got through to the second round. But while Mélenchon may have attracted many young voters to his campaign, he is no Bernie Sanders: his refusal to evolve from cold war-era reflexive anti-Americanism and his desire to pursue a “revolutionary” brand of opposition have dragged the French left into unelectability and moral confusion.
As late as 2019, long after Venezuela had ceased to be a democracy and had become, instead, Latin America’s primary source of political and economic refugees, Mélenchon was still publicly expressing admiration for the late Hugo Chávez and Nicolás Maduro.
