The French left is approaching a unitary list for the legislative elections headed by Mélenchon

The pact between France's leftist parties to run together in the legislative elections in June is beginning to take shape: environmentalists confirmed on Monday that they have closed an agreement with Jean-Luc Mélenchon's leftist France Insumisa after days of intense negotiations and multiple obstacles.

Shortly after the announcement of the "historic" agreement, according to the two parties, the communists assured that they were also about to unite while the socialists, despite their intense internal divisions, resumed negotiations.

These could last again all day on Monday and until dawn with a declared objective: to be able to announce the first great pact of the left in years, this May 3.

The date would be highly symbolic, since it commemorates the victory, in 1936, of the leftist forces gathered under the name of the Popular Front in the legislative elections that gave him the key to power with the election of the socialist Léon Blum as head of the Government.

Exactly 86 years later, it is Mélenchon, leader of the radical left, who is seeking a parliamentary majority with the support of other leftist forces in order to be appointed prime minister and thus act as a counterweight to Emmanuel Macron, recently re-elected president, in what which would be the first government of cohabitation since 2002.

The left-wing platform already has a name: New Popular Ecological and Social Union (NUPES).

The "historic" agreement, according to Mélenchonists and environmentalists, was closed during the early hours, after the veiled ultimatum that Mélenchon gave at the May 1 demonstration, when he said that he was not willing to lend himself to an "endless comedy" of negotiations. .

With almost 22% of the votes obtained in the first round of the presidential elections, well ahead of the other leftist formations, the leader of Francia Insumisa is the nucleus around which discussions are held with the other leftist formations to present a common front and achieve a majority in the 577-seat National Assembly and thus prevent "Macron from continuing his unjust and brutal policy" and also "defeat the extreme right," according to the statement issued by environmentalists.

Minimum salary of 1,400 euros and retirement at 60 years

To do this, the greens assume from the Mélenchonist program the demand to raise the minimum wage to 1,400 euros net, the return to retirement at 60 years (until now they maintained the current 62) and the "price blockade of basic necessities" , among others.

They also say "favorable" to the establishment of the VI Republic, Mélenchon's key programmatic point, to "end presidentialism and introduce new rights, especially the citizen initiative referendum."

Although the pact of the left seeks above all to acquire strength in domestic politics, one of the main commitments has been in European matters, which was one of the greatest points of friction between a party that proclaims Europeanism from its name (Europe-Ecology The Greens, EELV) and the Mélenchonists, more Eurosceptic and who promote "disobedience" of European treaties.

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The left as a hologram

"Founding country of the European Union, France cannot have as a policy neither the exit from the Union, nor its disintegration, nor the end of the single currency", the environmentalists underline in their statement.

However, they add, "although some European rules are a point of support (consumer protection, environmental standards...), many others are out of date or even contradict the imperatives of ecological and social emergency", they point out.

Therefore, they declare themselves "willing to disobey certain European rules (particularly economic and budgetary, such as the stability and growth pact, competition law, productivist and neoliberal guidelines of the Common Agricultural Policy, etc.)".

They justify this change of position —until a few days ago, the national secretary of the EELV, Julien Bayou, said that a European questioning would be done without them— alleging that they will not be "neither the first nor the last" to question some European principles, and they cite to Spain on energy prices, to Germany regarding the competition of drinking water companies or to Portugal on economic and budgetary aspects.

"We are pro-European, federalists, there is no ambiguity there," Bayou said Monday on BFM TV station.

“Are we satisfied with the current functioning of Europe?

The answer is no.

Do we want to reorient Europe?

The answer is yes” because “the

in Europe is a problem”, explained the author of a book entitled, precisely, Let's

.

The position towards Europe has been one of the main points of disagreement also between Mélenchonists and Socialists.

The formation has brought the negotiations to the brink of implosion, since they began last week, due to the firm rejection of a small but influential minority of the party to close a pact with the radical left.

Talks with the communists are scheduled for mid-afternoon.

Speaking to the France Inter radio station, the communist presidential candidate, Fabien Roussel, expressed optimism in the face of an imminent pact, for which he said he was willing to "leave aside" the issue of nuclear energy that he supported during the campaign. election, moving away from the position of most of the left.

“I see the far right divided, I see En Marcha [Macron's party], the right divided.

We have the possibility of joining together in an ambitious program”, declared Roussel, for whom the date of May 3 would be the icing on the cake.

"The anniversary of the Popular Front is symbolic and I would be happy to be able to sign this afternoon or in the coming hours to celebrate that beautiful anniversary."

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