The leftist French firebrand hopes to oust Macron but is unlikely to succeed.
- Despite failing to reach the run-off in France’s three presidential elections, leftist firebrand Jean-Luc Mélenchon is now looking to stir up a popular uprising against the cost-of-living crisis and pension reform, in hopes of ousting centrist President Emmanuel Macron.
- Opinion polls show a majority of voters oppose the pension reform.
- But there are several reasons why Mélenchon is unlikely to succeed.
- Even the communist-led General Confederation of Labor has made clear it will be organizing its own strikes and protests to demand wage rises keep pace with prices, and that it won’t let itself be press-ganged into a political campaign.
- Having made the blunder of giving up his own seat in parliament just as the National Assembly has become the focal point of political life, Mélenchon is struggling to hold together the New Ecologist and Social Popular Union (NUPES), an alliance of left-wing parties he forged to contest the June elections.
- While Mélenchon hankers after a popular uprising, some younger generation LFI lawmakers, such as film director François Ruffin and suburban Paris deputy Clémentine Autain, want more focus on winning over the neighborhoods and countryside, and allowing more pluralistic internal debate.
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