- France’s socialists have approved a left-wing alliance against re-elected liberal President Macron for June’s general election.
- The former People’s Party will compete together with the Left, Greens and Communists, said Chairman Olivier Faure on Friday night.
- Previously, there had been difficult negotiations with the left-wing party LFI, which had come third in the presidential election with Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
The merger of the fragmented left camp is historic and could be dangerous for Macron. Because he needs a majority in the National Assembly to implement his plans.
Even if he currently has a solid majority together with other center parties and the elected president has always won the majority in parliament since 2002, Macron’s frustration and disappointment over his first term in office are likely to cost him votes.
Mélenchon could become prime minister
The left-wing camp hopes to gain a majority themselves with their alliance Nouvelle Union Populaire Écologique et Sociale (NUPES). The merger is important because small parties have little chance of winning constituencies simply because of the majority voting system.
Should the alliance win the parliamentary majority, Macron would effectively be forced to appoint a prime minister from among their ranks. According to the agreements made between the left-wing parties, this should then be Mélenchon.
Agreement for the alliance was controversial
In the presidential election, the Socialists achieved a historically poor result. Unlike earlier alliances of left-wing parties, they do not now play the leading role.
They had to make some concessions to the Mélenchon party LFI, which is much further to the left. The agreement with them said, for example, that the alliance could violate certain rules of the European Union in order to implement the policy.