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The original was posted on /r/worldnews by /u/alabasterheart on 2024-06-15 20:37:12+00:00.
French left forms 'Popular Front' to fight far right
Submitted 2 years ago by bot@lemmit.online [bot] to worldnews@lemmit.online
https://www.bbc.com/news/articles/c6ppjvq5jv1o
autotldr@lemmings.world [bot] 2 years ago
This is the best summary I could come up with:
France’s left-wing political parties say they have united to form a “New Popular Front” to go head to head with the far right in snap parliamentary elections at the end of this month.President Emmanuel Macron called the two-round vote after the anti-immigration National Rally (RN) of Marine Le Pen and Jordan Bardella won a resounding victory in European elections last Sunday.The latest opinion poll for Le Point website puts RN on 29.5% of the vote in the first round on 30 June and the left-wing alliance on 28.5%, squeezing Mr Macron’s Renew into third with 18%.That has prompted each to claim it will form a “block” to prevent the others winning power in the National Assembly.
French government bonds have also suffered, and the margin has widened between 10-year interest rates on French and German bonds, the biggest spread since 2017.The pace of campaigning has been frenetic and the main three groups have launched direct attacks on their rivals.France’s fragmented political landscape and two-round system encourage alliances, which is why the Socialists have agreed to join forces with the Greens, Communists and France Unbowed, the far-left party of Jean-Luc Mélenchon.
He appealed to “all the patriotic forces of the republic” to unite to prevent the danger of the left winning the election.For the first time the opinion polls suggest National Rally has a chance of winning the vote, while stopping short of an absolute majority.Mr Bardella vowed to push through an immigration law enabling the expulsion of “delinquents and Islamists”, if he becomes prime minister.
He also promised to cut the cost of energy.A poll on Friday evening for Le Point-Cluster 17 suggested the new left-wing alliance was not far behind Mr Bardella’s party.It indicated RN could win 195-245 seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, with the New Popular Front on 190-235.
“I’m sorry, [National Rally] do not have the means to afford these expenses,” he said.The left, which has been dominated by France Unbowed in the outgoing parliament, has proposed scrapping the Macron government’s pension reforms, lowering the retirement age to 60, a year after it was raised from 62 to 64, and it is also planning to raise the minimum wage from just under €1,400 (£1,180) to €1,600 a month.Condemning this programme as “total madness”, the finance minister said it would break the rules of the EU’s stability pact.Under the Popular Front agreement, France Unbowed is likely to have by far the loudest voice, putting up candidates in 229 of France’s 577 constituencies, while the Socialists field 175 candidates, the Ecologists 92 and the Communists 50.Prime Minister Gabriel Attal warned that the left’s plans would be very bad news for French people “who would see their taxes rise again”.
Ecologists leader Marine Tondelier hit back, accusing him of a leading a “Robin Hood government in reverse” with reforms that took money from the poor and left the wealthy alone.
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