Taniel: JUST IN: France's 4 leading left parties just announced finalizing a coalition agreement. Joint statement confirms formation of "New Popular Front," labeled after left's historic 1936 win. (Reportedly, Macron's expectation that left couldn't ally was factor in snap elections.)

JUST IN: France's 4 leading left parties just announced finalizing a coalition agreement. Joint statement confirms formation of "New Popular Front," labeled after left's historic 1936 win. (Reportedly, Macron's expectation that left couldn't ally was factor in snap elections.)

Surprise: François Hollande, the former center-left President, was very critical of Left coalition in 2022, calling it mistake for center-left to ally with Mélenchon. He just announced he backs new deal. This unity was unthinkable days ago, but threat of far-right so real. A Macron miracle lol.

Keir Starmer Genie gif, but with Macron. It's better to be lucky than smart, every time.

Macron strikes me as more astute now. His understanding about the blood bath in Ukraine. Understanding its threats to territorial integrity and democracy. Understanding the dangers of the far right. #macron

Seems like Macron should form a transatlantic coalition with Kathy Hochul and the NY Dems. They have similar political instincts.

If Macron winds up having to live with a cohabitation, but with Melenchon it's going to be extremely funny.

Leftism is the only thing that can beat the far right

Best news I’ve read today.

Couldn’t Macron choose to ally with the left and shift politics a bit leftward as a result?

Macron has allied with the center right since the first days of his presidency. Just not his politics.

He absolutely could, but won't.

In no way, shape or form, would Mélenchon look for any kind of agreement with Macron.

He said he wouldn't for Zionist reasons.

Source?

sorry for the link to The Bad Site twitter.com/BFMTV/status...

x.comx.com

Right, so for the record, you're qualifying the pushback on Mélenchon's statement that attacks on French Jews are insignificant as "Zionist".

Regardless of what you think of French Jews, that is not the reason why Macron wouldn't get into an alliance with Mélenchon. They're political enemies who have been hostile for well over a decade.

Maçron is a Zionist, Melenchon isn't.

Macron opposes the left. He's on the far right.

You'd think

So we effectively have a three party election? REM in the center, fighting off right and left wings?

Not quite. It looks, at the moment, like Left Coalition, Center Coalition (Macron), Center-Right (LR), and Far Right (LePen) as the latter two are currently feuding over control. Macron did correctly assess that the Right couldn't unify, but didn't expect the Left to.

Gotta admit I’m finding it a little surprising! Not that I’m super knowledgeable about French politics

as a fairly ill-informed person in the US, it felt like Macron was taking a big gamble, but it seems to have paid off? 🤞🏻

No, this is another sign it’s blowing up in his face.

thank you! so the right is allying against him and so is the left?

Yes. The left parties ran on a similar unity ticket in the previous election, but have been constantly squabbling ever since. Part of the idea behind calling a snap election right now was give them less time to come together on a new agreement.

This is also with the current situation on the Right where the two big Right Wing factions are currently squabbling, so his assumption seems to be that neither wings would unify leaving the Center to continue free and clear. The Left has defied said assumptions.

I wouldn’t characterize the big right-wing factions as squabbling with each other. One of them is having some internal squabbling over whether they want to work with the other for the first time.

thank you! I appreciate the explanation.

Post