In Paris and throughout France, this is the day of street demonstrations by left-wing people and trade unions against the specter of the National Rally party coming to power. Six days after the electoral success of Le Pen and Bardella's party, which prompted Emmanuel Macron's surprise decision to dissolve both chambers and call early elections, tens of thousands of people demonstrated across the country to chant “no” to the purge of parliament. Heirs of Nazi collaborators. But also to reiterate their anger, in many cases, against Macron himself, who is opposed by trade unions and left-wing hardliners because of his policy prescriptions on pensions, welfare and immigration. According to the CGT, the main French trade union, about 640,000 people took to the streets across France on Saturday in 182 different marches: 250,000 in Paris alone. The estimate from the state of Paris is much more limited, as about 75,000 people demonstrated in the capital. However, colorful and multifaceted marches came together, in which all the main leftist acronyms that in recent days signed the electoral charter came together to run together under the banner of the “New Popular Front”: from communists to environmentalists, from extremists in France. France rejects the Socialist Party and the allied formation of Place Publique led by Raphael Glucksmann. Many Palestinian flags and slogans were raised in solidarity with this issue in the demonstrations.

Political framework

But in the face of division among Republicans on the right, what is now taking center stage are battles over the names of candidates – and the political platform – for the left front. Recently, the “Proud France” group, led by Jean-Luc Mélenchon, presented its lists that revealed the exclusion of several MPs considered critical of the party line. A “real cleansing” in protest against the excluded. Surprisingly, the person running for a seat in the next parliament is former President of the Republic François Hollande, who also ended his five-year term in the Elysee at the peak of his popularity and left the Socialist Party at an all-time low in 2018. Consensus. He is now back on the pitch in the Corrèze area. He confirmed this himself: “If I take this decision, it is because the situation has never been so serious,” adding that “the union of the left is necessary, but it is the union of the population that is indispensable.” . According to a poll published by the newspaper today Why Echo?While the National Rally party received exactly a third of the preferences (33%), clearly ahead of the New Popular Front (25%) and the bloc that supports Macron (20%). But in the space of one week, the political landscape has been turned upside down, and in the two weeks remaining before the vote, a lot can still change.

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