Catherine Curran Vigier analyses the second round of the recent French election, a clear path for a left government hangs in the balance and needs a mass-movement to get it across the line.
After thousands poured onto the streets of France to express their relief and joy at seeing the fascist National Rally beaten into third place in the second round of the General Election, the left has a new battle on its hands.
We now face a concerted attempt by President Macron, his deputies, and the rest of the right, to deny the reality of this victory and refuse a left government in France.
The election results are clear: the New Popular Front alliance of LFI (France Unbowed), the PS (Socialist Party) PCF (Communist Party) and EELV (Ecologists) won most seats,195 of 577 seats. LFI got 78 seats, the PS 69, the Ecologists 28 and the PCF 9. Another 11 independent leftists can be added to this to make the left the biggest group sitting in the National Assembly.
Traditionally, the President asks the largest group to form a government and nominates a Prime Minister proposed by this group. But Macron has not contacted the New Popular Front and has asked former prime minister Gabriel Attal, who led the Macronist party Together’s campaign, to stay on to ensure ‘stability’.
The Macronists and the mainstream media, which laid out a red carpet for the fascist RN to present its racist, anti-immigrant programme in the days leading up to the election, is now fighting tooth and nail to bury all talk of a left Government:
The majority of deputies are on the right, they claim, arguing that people voted for the New Popular Front just to stop the RN, not for the New Popular Front’s Programme. They assert that right wingers who voted Left to keep out the RN must have their opinions respected by the NPF.
Opinion polls are quoted saying Melenchon is the most unpopular politician in France and therefore can’t be Prime Minister. The same polls say the French want Bardella to be Prime Minister, or at a pinch, the outgoing PM Gabriel Attal. These are the same polls that predicted a landslide victory for the RN.
TV presenters say the Left won’t be able to govern because the right won’t vote for proposals like the repeal of the laws on retirement, unemployment insurance or immigration.
Right-wing news channel BFM even brought on journalist Rokhaya Diallo to say immigrant communities were ‘instrumentalized’ by LFI, which got record scores in some areas with high immigrant populations.
In short, the Right is working ferociously to split the New Popular Front and win the more right wing elements over to a coalition with the Macronists, who came second in the elections with around 166 deputies in their alliance.
Olivier Faure, the PS leader, has put himself forward for the position of PM. He has already started appealing to the racists who voted RN, saying we need an alliance of the ‘housing estates and the suburbs’, but ‘we must deal with the problem of insecurity.’
The right is desperate to return to the themes of insecurity, immigration, and Islam which were the mainstays of the RN campaign.
But the Left will not win by making concessions to the RN’s racism.
Instead, we need to fight for our programme.
Olivier Faure signed a manifesto with the other leaders of the New Popular Front promising to fight racism and discrimination, in employment, health and housing, and to fight antisemitism and islamophobia.
He needs to be reminded of his promises, and only mass mobilisations on the streets and in workplaces can do this. Fighting racism must be at the heart of the New Popular Front’s combats.
We can’t just allow the PS to sell out. The people who voted for the Popular Front’s programme have a right to see it applied.
The election victory is just the beginning, not the end of thestruggle. The results give us every reason to think we can succeed. As LFI deputy Mathilde Panot said when she led the party’s new deputies into the Assembly:
‘Twice we have done the impossible. We created the NFP programme and the agreement among the parties’…’two days ago, we won the elections when everyone predicted a victory for the RN. We also turned a page on Macron’s miserable world.’ ‘We want to govern the country,’ she said, but ‘the President is acting as if the vote didn’t happen.’
The stakes are high. The question is whether we can force the bosses and their parties to increase wages and bring the retirement age back to 60, to impose a price freeze, to increase the minimum wage.
This NFP programme is not a radical programme but if we show that we can overturn the neoliberal capitalist agenda, it will be a major setback for and the bosses and the ruling class internationally. If a Left Government in France recognized the State of Palestine, as Melenchon has promised to do, it would be a blow to the Zionists and the US.
The CGT trade union has sent around a circular at local and national level demanding that the government respect the vote. In some constituencies in places like Marseilles, groups are being set up to continue the New Popular Front. This needs to be generalised and is an absolute priority in the days and weeks to come.
Former LFI deputy Adrien Quatennens has called for a giant march on the Prime Minister’s office at Matignon to stop Macron from stealing our victory, and to get the Left government that can apply the programme.
The other weapon we can use is the Olympic Games. A massive strike could paralyze the opening of the games and show Macron that his actions have a cost. Air traffic controller have already called a strike for July 17th demanding extra pay for the extra work involved during the games. Workers in some hospitals are doing the same. These actions could be replicated by other sectors of workers, for whom the increase in wages and the price freeze promised in the NPF’s programme are indispensable.
In 1936, the election of a Popular Front government was accompanied by mass strikes which gained pay raises, paid holidays and recognition for the principle of collective bargaining in different sectors of employment. The Popular Front’s programme was forced on the bosses by the action of the organized working class. We can do the same thing today if we do not allow ourselves to be demoralized by the right and the fascists who are waiting in the wings.
We cannot defeat the RN in the future if we accept defeat at the hands of the bosses now.
