French left-wing parties pledge to team up for snap elections

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00:00 So, little more than 24 hours after the shock announcement from France's President Emmanuel Macron

00:06 that he is calling snap elections in little over two weeks' time, France's left-wing parties coming together to fight.

00:13 The Socialists, the Greens, the Communists and the more far-left France Unbowed Party announcing they will present shared platform candidates.

00:20 Just one candidate that is then per constituency to represent all of them.

00:25 Their hope that they can really challenge Macron and also really challenge the rise of Marine Le Pen's the far-right here,

00:31 that rise that has led to this election in the first place.

00:35 This means we will be working together to put forward joint candidates in the first round of the parliamentary elections

00:45 who will defend a programme that prioritises the urgent social, ecological and democratic battles.

00:53 It's a first step and we will be continuing to work over the coming hours to ensure that we are ready in the days to come

01:01 because the battle is about to begin.

01:04 We are a country rising up today and saying no to the far-right and yes to democracy, yes to the left.

01:14 Thank you for coming out today. Keep it up.

01:21 We signed a document with seven political organisations and launched an appeal for more people to join us tomorrow.

01:28 I think there are already 15 or so political organisations that have joined this appeal this evening.

01:34 Tomorrow I hope we will reach 20 or so and that this very broad gathering will enable us to go all the way to victory.

01:43 Andrew Hillier from our International Affairs desk is joining us here on set now.

01:49 Andrew, people have been saying you've got to come together and it does seem as though the left parties are all coming together now.

01:56 Yes, Stuart, we're seeing what I would call the outlines of an agreement here between the four main parties on the left.

02:02 That's France Unbowed, the Socialist Party, the Communists and the Greens as you can see on the screen here.

02:08 Late last night they issued a joint statement in which they announced their desire to form a popular front.

02:15 What they'll do is they'll combine forces, putting forward only one candidate in each electoral district.

02:21 Of course, the aim there is to stop left-wing candidates draining votes away from each other in the same district.

02:28 They're all going to rally behind the same election manifesto.

02:32 Now, Stuart, for people like you and me who don't follow French politics quite as closely,

02:37 it's important to point out that this is not the first time that the left has come together to form an alliance.

02:42 They actually already did it two years ago during the last legislative elections under the banner of NUPEZ.

02:48 And you remember that was dominated by France Unbowed and its leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon,

02:53 after he came third in those presidential elections in 2022, narrowly missing out on second place to Marine Le Pen.

03:01 But basically what happened over the next two years was that infighting caused that alliance to implode.

03:08 There were differences in policy and the breaking point came last October when differences emerged over Israel's war on Gaza.

03:16 You had basically the Socialist Party and the Greens openly supporting Israel's response to those attacks by Hamas last October,

03:24 whereas France Unbowed took a more nuanced view on what happened,

03:30 focusing more on Israel's repressive policies towards Palestinians as a factor driving those attacks.

03:37 France Unbowed's leader, Jean-Luc Mélenchon, was accused of echoing anti-Semitic stereotypes.

03:42 So essentially what we have here is an agreement, but getting an agreement is one thing.

03:47 Now, whether or not it sticks over the next few weeks and months is something else.

03:51 So we'll have to see what happens. Will differences re-emerge over Gaza?

03:55 What will this election manifesto look like? Those are big answers, big questions, and we need to see what the answers will be.

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