Marseilles A large stage rises up on the beach in Marseille, white tent roofs gleam in the sun, and French rap blares from the loudspeakers. It could be the setup for a music festival. Around 35,000 people came to see Jean-Luc Mélenchon, to experience their hopeful, who has very different ideas for the future of France than the incumbent president.
They hold flags with the logo of Mélenchon’s La France Insoumise (Indomitable France) movement, but French national flags – and the Palestinian flag – also fly in the crowd. A video message from the former mayor of Bogotá, who wants to win for the left in the presidential election in Colombia, will be broadcast in the opening program. “Another world is possible” is written on the posters on the stage. Then Mélenchon steps up to the microphone, the audience cheers and then experiences a relentless political barrage from the left edge.
He attacks his big competitors head-on. President Emmanuel Macron and right-wing populist Marine Le Pen actually have the same economic program, says Mélenchon. The difference is a nuance: Macron despises the working class, Le Pen stands for “contempt for races”.
Pollsters currently see Mélenchon in third place with around 14 percent – a good five points behind Le Pen and around 15 points behind Macron. But at least his supporters are convinced that he can slip past Le Pen in the first round of the April 10 presidential election in the April 24 runoff. The polls recently showed a clear upward trend for Mélenchon.
Top jobs of the day
Find the best jobs now and
be notified by email.
He describes himself as a “sharp tortoise” who slowly but surely gets to the finish line. At the gathering of his supporters in Marseille on Sunday, he said: “Victory is within reach.” The French elites would have liked a calm election that would be carried out as an “administrative formality”. “We are their nightmare.”
In reality, a victory for La France Insoumise is a long way off, especially with a possible runoff against Macron in mind. Mélenchon is the best-placed candidate from the left camp – which, however, is fragmented. Many left-centre voters switched to Macron five years ago. For the Socialists and the Greens, who, unlike in Germany, neither have a chance to come to power in France, Mélenchon’s anti-capitalist course is a bit too radical.
In addition, Mélenchon is an opponent of the EU, which he regards as a construct of the capitalist system. He has a particularly difficult relationship with Germany. After the euro crisis, he worked in a book on the alleged economic and financial policy dictates of the Federal Republic in Europe. The title: “Bismarck’s herring – the German poison”.
Criticism of Germany, understanding for Putin
The 70-year-old always denies the accusation of German hostility, but his statements leave a lot of room for interpretation. After Chancellor Olaf Scholz announced that he would set up a special fund of 100 billion euros for the Bundeswehr, he tweeted: “Ukraine must not be used as a pretext for a new arms race. Especially not in Germany.”
In the past, Mélenchon has shown a great deal of sympathy for Russian President Vladimir Putin. In the meantime, however, he too has condemned Putin’s war of aggression: “I demand the Russian withdrawal from Ukraine,” he says, and the “absurd and criminal violence” must end. However, he is sticking to his position that he wants to lead France out of NATO. For him, it seems, his opponent is still more likely to be in Washington than in Moscow.
Jean-Luc Mélenchon distinguishes himself with his theses as a counterpoint to the established election campaigners.
(Photo: Reuters)
Mélenchon was born in Tangier, Morocco, and came to France at the age of eleven. In his speeches he says that he was the first member of his family to graduate from high school. He then studied philosophy, worked as a teacher and journalist before coming to politics through his involvement in trade unions. In the 1970s he joined the Socialists, from 2000 to 2002 he was Minister for Vocational Training under the Socialist Prime Minister Lionel Jospin.
But Mélenchon quarreled with his party, the counterpart of the German SPD, which he found too central. In 2008 he broke with the Socialists and later built his own left-wing movement. He stood for the first time in the 2012 presidential election and won around eleven percent of the vote. Five years ago, he ended up in fourth place with a good 19 percent of the votes in the first ballot.
Fight against “social emergency” in France
For the time being, Mélenchon is aiming for a restructuring of France, which he sees in a “social emergency”. As a countermeasure, he wants, among other things, to increase the minimum wage to 1,400 euros a month, and because of inflation, the prices of basic service products are to be blocked by the state.
While Macron is calling for the retirement age to be raised from 62 to 65, Mélenchon wants to lower it to 60. The candidate also gives a lot of space to environmental issues – and is one of the few candidates to speak out against nuclear energy. After all, he wants a constitutional reform away from the powerful position of the head of state and towards more say for parliament. Mélenchon calls his demand the “Sixth Republic” – it is about nothing less than abolishing the presidential system of the Fifth Republic introduced by Charles de Gaulle in 1958.
Ukraine must not be a pretext for a new arms race. Especially not in Germany. Jean-Luc Melenchon
Mélenchon claims that most voters support his positions. “We have the majority in the heart of the French,” he says. In order to get the necessary votes, his team hopes that the supporters of the other left-wing candidates will rally behind Mélenchon as the most promising representative, despite their differences.
However, he has to fear a similar dynamic in the right-wing camp: The supporters of right-wing nationalist Éric Zemmour, who has fallen behind in the polls, could switch to Marine Le Pen to get them through to the second round.
The official election campaign rules have been in effect in France since Monday: the twelve candidates who are allowed to vote must be given equal speaking time on radio and television. All citizens receive the programs of the presidential candidates.
In the final phase of the election campaign, Mélenchon uses an unusual method that he had already used in 2017: he wants to have himself projected as a hologram onto stages in French cities in order to hold several rallies at the same time.
On the beach of Marseille, on the other hand, the flesh-and-blood Mélenchon still speaks. At the end of the rally, the national anthem rattled out of the speakers.
Serge and Véronique stand at a reasonable distance from the stage, spellbound, listening to Mélenchon’s words. They came from the small town of Lambesc in southern France to follow their favorite’s campaign appearance. They have supported Mélenchon’s presidential ambitions since 2012.
“The turtle is making progress,” says Véronique, who is a psychotherapist. Pensioner Serge is convinced that the left-wing politician’s time has come: “After five years, Macron’s ideas are being heard more than ever before.”
More: Just like Macron wants to win the next election