On the night President Emmanuel Macron announced snap elections for France’s National Assembly last month, two words began buzzing across the internet and media: Popular Front.
It was a reference to the left-wing alliance formed in the 1930s to resist rising fascism in Europe and at home. Now, a group of France’s main left-wing parties have rallied to fight what they see as a new danger: Marine Le Pen’s far-right National Rally party, which is closer than ever to taking power.
This left-wing alliance called itself the New People’s Front.
“For the first time since the Vichy regime, the far right could prevail again in France,” Socialist leader Olivier Faure told a large crowd recently, referring to France’s World War II government that collaborated with the Nazi occupiers.
Mr Macron decided to force elections for the National Assembly, the lower house of parliament, following a humiliating defeat last month by Ms Le Pen’s party in European parliamentary elections.
The left-wing group of parties, which had disbanded only months earlier due to personal and political differences, responded by reuniting. Despite its hasty start, the New People’s Front came second in the first round of voting. The Front was just five percentage points behind the National Rally and its allies, while Mr Macron’s centrist Renaissance party and its allies came a distant third.
Since then, the New People’s Front has made it difficult for the far right to take power. He has created what is known in France as a “Republican front” or “barrier”, asking their candidates from three-way races to drop out to reduce the chance of a National Rally victory in this Sunday’s second round. More than 130 of its candidates have dropped out, along with around 80 in Mr Macron’s party, according to French media.
The latest polls suggest the strategy may work. The National Rally is still well placed to win the most seats in the 577-seat National Assembly, but may now fall short of the 289 needed for an absolute majority.
“Historically, when there is a threat from the far right, the left always unites,” said Rémi Lefebvre, a professor of political science at the University of Lille. “That’s been the reflex since the 1930s.”
But many in France also fear elements of the left, particularly because the largest party in the coalition, France Unbowed, is known for its incendiary far-left politics. Some members are also accused of anti-Semitism, particularly the aggressive and divisive Jean-Luc Mélenchon, a long-time leftist leader and the founder of France Unbowed.
“They want to become a barrier to block the National Rally. But beyond that, what will happen?’ said Nicole Bacharan, a political scientist who teaches at Sciences Po University in Paris. “They’re asking people to take a big leap into the unknown.”
How did the Left break up and then unite?
Once strong in the country under a powerful Socialist Party, the French left has in recent years been reduced to a fractious alliance between four parties: Communists, Socialists, the Greens and France Insubordinate. The coalition was first formed in 2022 and was dominated by Mr Mélenchon’s France Unbowed.
A three-time presidential candidate and former Trotskyite, Mr Mélenchon has been relegated to a non-leadership role in the new alliance, according to other members of the group.
Since the Oct. 7 attack on Israel, Mr. Mélenchon has unabashedly expressed pro-Palestinian views, refused to label Hamas a terrorist organization and strongly denounced Israel’s military operation in Gaza as “genocide.” He called a large demonstration against anti-Semitism, attended by two former French presidents, a date for “the friends of unconditional support for the massacre”.
At a time when attacks and threats against French Jews have soared, Mr. Melanchon has been repeatedly accused of fanning the growing flames of anti-Semitism.
The alliance, already fraught with infighting, collapsed.
Knitting it back together took four frantic days and nights. “We didn’t sleep,” said Pierre Jouvet, general secretary of the Socialist party and one of the main negotiators. “It was a bit like what sailors do on long crossings, we took half hour or 40 minute mini naps and drank a lot of coffee.”
Although fear of the far right played its part in the shotgun political wedding, so did pragmatism. Given the far-right’s trajectory, if the left did not act as a unit, it was likely to lose many of its seats, said Frédéric Sawicki, a professor of political science at Pantheon-Sorbonne University in Paris.
On day five, they came out with a hefty platform, full of promises and apparent compromises for a group that has fundamental disagreements on everything from involvement in the wars in Ukraine and Gaza to nuclear power.
The New Popular Front is campaigning on a platform that would raise France’s monthly minimum wage, lower the legal retirement age to 60 and freeze the price of basic necessities, including food, energy and gas. Instead of drastically limiting immigration, as the far-right promised, the coalition pledged to make the asylum process more generous and smooth.
The group will also push for a ceasefire in Gaza and the release of hostages and “immediately recognize” a Palestinian state. He also vowed to develop government plans to combat both anti-Semitism and Islamophobia.
Could the New People’s Front win?
A New People’s Front victory, if it was ever possible, is less important now that so many of its candidates have dropped out.
However, the left could win enough votes to exert influence, especially if a coalition government is formed.
The group’s hope is not just to defeat the far-right, but to take on the mantle of the original Popular Front, a true touchstone for the left in France. For many they were the trademark, for what they could do, but also for their brave look at fascism.
The original Popular Front formed a government under Léon Blum, who in 1936 became the country’s first Socialist and Jewish prime minister. The day after he took office, he introduced a series of laws that drastically changed life for French workers, including two weeks of paid annual leave and a 40-hour work week.
The government lasted only two years. In 1943, under the Vichy collaborationist government, Mr. Bloom was sent to Buchenwald, where he lived in a house outside the concentration camp.
“The Popular Front government didn’t last long,” said Jean Vigreux, a history professor at the University of Burgundy in Dijon who has written two books about the Popular Front, “but it changed lives.”
Mr Macron, who shunned the far left long before the front crushed his party in last Sunday’s vote, was unflinching in his reaction to the formation of the New Popular Front, saying Mr Blum “must be turning in his grave ».
He dismissed the front as the “extreme left”, given the inclusion of France Unbowed, and said the party was as dangerous to French democracy as the far right. Many voters agree. In the last two annual polls of French sentiment, conducted annually by Ipsos-Sopra Steria, 57 percent of people saw the party as a “danger to democracy” — more than the National Rally.
The New People’s Front refused to name a leader who would be prime minister if it won a majority or became part of a coalition government. But many leaders in the alliance have strongly reiterated that it would not be Mr Mélenchon. However, he refused to rule himself out, repeatedly stating that he is “qualified” for the job.
Will the resistance to the National Rally work?
National Rally is still expected to win the most seats, but resistance could prevent it from the absolute majority it desires.
It could also confuse the public after months of name-calling between leftists and centrists, causing some voters to abstain.
“It’s going to be hard for voters to understand that they have to vote for people who just a few days earlier were labeled as despicable,” said Mr. Lefebvre, a political science professor.
Jordan Bardella, the president of the National Rally, criticized the New Popular Front, saying its efforts to keep the right from power are undemocratic. “Do you think it honors politics, to do everything to stop a movement that I lead, which represents millions of French people?” he said in a television interview this week.
New People’s Front leaders reject this claim.
“It is not a rejection of democracy. It is a burning desire to prevent the arrival of the far right in France,” said Mr. Jouvet, “because we consider the far right and Jordan Bardela dangerous for France.”
But if successful, some analysts fear the “Republican Front” will exacerbate the sense of abandonment described by many far-right supporters who believe Mr Macron’s government is not listening to their concerns.
“That’s the perverse effect of this,” said Ms. Baharan, the political scientist. “Far-right voters are hearing ‘Power must be kept away from us.’
Ségolène Le Strandich contributed reporting from Paris
