Paris, Berlin, Brussels When Germany was eliminated in the first round of a World Cup in 2018, Jean-Luc Mélenchon was jubilant: “Pure joy: the team has been eliminated,” the French left-wing populist wrote on Twitter at the time. When it comes to football, emotions sometimes spill over. But in the political debate, Mélenchon is at least as gruff against the Federal Republic.
In the environment of SPD Chancellor Olaf Scholz, who received the liberal President Emmanuel Macron on Monday for the first foreign visit in his second term, one does not want to comment on domestic political events in France. When in doubt, the Greens and Social Democrats in Berlin hope for a resurgent left that could keep right-wing nationalist Marine Le Pen out of power in the future.
SPD expects sister party to continue its pro-European course
SPD deputy faction leader Achim Post told the Handelsblatt that Germany and the EU are still urgently dependent on a Europe-oriented France. “That’s why it’s so important that the right-wing nationalists in France aren’t successful in the forthcoming parliamentary elections either,” he said. “And that’s why I expect a fundamentally constructive attitude towards Europe and the EU from the newly forming left-wing alliance in France.”
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But the SPD is not enthusiastic about the alliance with Mélenchon. It is true that the move can be understood in terms of electoral tactics, according to party circles. Nor should the Socialists disappear into obscurity after their historically poor performance in the presidential election. The sister party is expected to continue to follow a clear pro-European course.
Jürgen Trittin, foreign policy spokesman for the Greens in the Bundestag, told the Handelsblatt: A government participation by the left-wing alliance under Mélenchon after the parliamentary elections could “offer France the opportunity to reduce the division in society and thus prevent political dissatisfaction from tipping further into the right-wing camp.” The EU would then also benefit from this. “And one thing remains true even for left-wing EU skeptics – the law of the European Union continues to apply, no matter what is in the election program.”
Chantal Kopf, member of the Bundestag, who represents the Greens in the Franco-German Parliamentary Assembly, sees France as “the first opportunity to set green accents at the national level”. The intersections to the left are obvious when it comes to social and environmental issues.
Mélenchon rails against “German dictation”
But it is “worrying” that Mélenchon’s policy is to “deliberately undermine the EU”. Kopf says: “We hope that Mélenchon’s anti-European course will not be able to assert itself in an election-tactical alliance with the French Greens.”
The Socialists and Greens in the neighboring country have committed themselves to a partner who has little to do with Franco-German cooperation in Europe. Instead, Mélenchon sees France and other EU countries as victims of a “German dictate”, especially in economic and financial policy.
He wants to end the defense policy cooperation and the joint armaments projects. He commented on the special fund of 100 billion euros set up for the Bundeswehr after the Russian war of aggression against Ukraine: “Ukraine must not be used as a pretext for a new arms race. Especially not in Germany.”
Again and again, Mélenchon’s statements reveal a questionable image of Germany. On the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall in November 2019, he described reunification as an “annexation” of the GDR by the Federal Republic. As a result, “outrageous social violence” was done to the East Germans, who actually did not want this type of merger.
“European disobedience” towards Brussels
After the euro crisis, Mélenchon worked on the German role in Europe in a book. The title: “Bismarck’s herring – the German poison”. He saw the 2015 refugee crisis as a “new pretext to reaffirm Germany’s arrogant hegemony in Europe.” and ecological regression”.
France’s Socialists and Greens hope to win a majority in the National Assembly with the workhorse Mélenchon and thus use a left-wing prime minister to counterbalance Macron. In order to achieve this goal and save some of their parliamentary seats, the traditionally pro-European parties accepted Mélenchon’s motto of “European disobedience” – a disregard for EU law should it be required in specific cases for the implementation of the national agenda.
This approach is more reminiscent of Poland’s and Hungary’s confrontational course against Brussels than of the positions that belonged to right and left of center in EU founding member France for reasons of state. The alliance concluded with Mélenchon “was a big topic in our group meeting of the European Greens,” said Rasmus Andresen, who leads the German Greens in the European Parliament, the Handelsblatt.
“The sentence about ‘disobedience to the EU’ caused irritation for us.” After a three-hour debate, however, he was “pretty sure that this alliance will not lead to a change of course by the French Greens in European politics”. The French colleagues had explained that it was a “purely technical alliance” for the election.
Mélenchon secures most of the alliance’s candidates for his party
Jens Geier, chairman of the SPD MEPs, also shows understanding for the alliance: “It’s a question of whether the Parti Socialiste, as France’s social motor, is represented in the National Assembly or not.” In the “progressive alliance” only Mélenchon was “anti- European,” Geier said. “The rest isn’t.”
However, Mélenchon sets the tone in the new left-wing alliance, which the communists have also joined. When the 577 constituencies were divided among the four parties involved, Indomitable France secured 360 candidatures.
Mélenchon won 22 percent in the first round of the presidential election, missing out on last month’s runoff against Macron, just behind Le Pen. Not least because of the complicated electoral system for the French parliament, it is uncertain whether his alliance will actually be able to secure a majority in the National Assembly in June. But he confidently had “Prime Minister Mélenchon” printed on his election posters.
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