00:00Joined here on set by our politics editor, Mark Perelman, to look really, Mark, at the political
00:06ramifications of all this. You know, how can the far left France unbound party recover from this?
00:14Is there division within their own ranks about the handling of all of this?
00:18For now, no divisions at all. The party is fully behind its leader, Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon,
00:23in fighting back, saying we have nothing to do with this. This is a political vendetta against us.
00:31People are taking advantage of this tragic death to try to tarnish us and say we're not only on the
00:39far left, but we're the violent far left, a far left that kills and not only argues and fights in
00:46parliament. So this is clearly a big, big problem. And they're fighting back. A few hours ago,
00:53we learned that there was a bomb alert at the party headquarters in Paris, and it was quickly
01:01ended. But one of the leading members of France unbound, Manuel Montpare, saying this proves that
01:08this is also dangerous for us, that everyone saying that we're killers or we're associated with killers
01:15could also have consequences for us. So they're obviously trying to find ways to respond. The
01:21problem is for Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon that it's on the record that the party is associated with this
01:30group called the Young Guard, which is now under scrutiny, which was dissolved a few months ago by
01:36the Interior Ministry. Why? Because... Whose members are suspects. Exactly, exactly. Why? Because
01:42Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon went to a kind of like summer camp where they were meeting back in 2023 to salute
01:51them. And in 2024, there was a public meeting in Auxerre, in Burgundy, where he said on the stage
02:00that the Young Guard was allied with France unbound. So there is a link, not only speculation by journalists
02:08or by political opponents, but admitted by the leader himself. Obviously, this doesn't mean that
02:15Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon is ordering people to go and fight and eventually kill people. But the fact that
02:21he is indeed associated with this Young Guard, the fact that he himself, the supreme leader of the
02:27France unbound, said that Raphael Arnault would run for election and be elected, Raphael Arnault being
02:34one of the founders of the Young Guard, clearly puts the France unbound in a very, very difficult
02:40position. They have to respond because they want to distance themselves from the death of Quentin.
02:46And meanwhile, this far left France unbound have in the past, they have cooperated, they have a
02:53partnership with the mainstream socialists in France. It has at times looked very bumpy anyway.
03:00There have been calls from former socialist president François Hollande and others too,
03:05perhaps to completely break any relationship between the far left and the mainstream socialists
03:11over this. Are we likely to see more of that?
03:14Well, obviously, there are some, you mentioned François Hollande, but some voices on the Socialist
03:21Party, which has already been at loggerheads with the France unbound over several months,
03:27to say we need to cut ties because this could also damage us. But there is no consensus within
03:34the socialists. I mean, many of the socialist militants were brought up essentially to fight
03:40fascism. So for them, the enemy is the far right. It's very, very difficult for them to turn around and
03:48say we might have problems on the far left because many of them were militants with members of France
03:55and Baal. Let's not forget, Jean-Luc MĂ©lenchon was a socialist. He was a socialist minister,
04:01actually, a quarter of a century ago before he broke ranks. So they all come from the left,
04:07which was often at loggerheads with the right, but especially with the far right. So it's difficult
04:16within the Socialist Party to totally break ranks. We haven't heard much from the leader of the
04:21Socialist Party, Olivier Faure. Clearly, there is a malaise. We'll have to see where the investigation
04:27leads. But this is indeed creating tensions. Some might say it might also provide some clarification
04:34about the alliances on the left for the forthcoming municipal elections in a few weeks, but more
04:40importantly for the presidential election in 2027. And you mentioned those mayoral elections just
04:46quickly. The voter in all this, the far right have used this occasion to say that there should be a
04:54franc républicain, which is where French voters are asked to vote tactically in the past to block the
05:00far right candidates getting any seats. And now there will be calls to do the same thing, to block far
05:08left
05:08candidates from getting seats. Do you think that the voters will, any voters will heed that?
05:14Well, first of all, we have to just measure the change you just mentioned. I mean, for years,
05:20and including in the last election, the snap election, which was called by Emmanuel Macron,
05:26there was indeed a Republican front against the national rally to prevent them from getting seats
05:33in the National Assembly. This was in 2024, not 15 years ago. Now there is talk of a reverse
05:42Republican front against the far left. And clearly, the national rally is now very happy because
05:50they've been considered outside of the Republican realm, a far right party, a party that doesn't really
05:57respect the republic. And now they're enjoying the show. They're just sitting and watching the France and
06:04about being called by the French authorities, a far left party being associated with violence. This has
06:12been the case for the national rally for years. Many people have died at the hands of the far right
06:18over
06:19the last 10 years or so. And some of them, some of the attackers were associated with the national rally
06:27indirectly in some cases, but more directly in others. So now you're seeing a reversal. And the national rally,
06:34which is already riding very high in the polls, can only benefit from the latest developments. We'll have to see
06:41in the municipal elections. Yes, but those are local elections. So it's very different from one town to the
06:48other. But obviously, they have their eyes trained on the presidential election. And clearly, they are their favorites.
06:54If it's Marine Le Pen or Jordan Bardella, it doesn't really matter. Now the odds are that they would
07:01really be on top in the first round and that they would really have a shot at winning the presidency.
07:07It's in a little more than a year. It always seemed very far away. But now we're getting there and
07:14the
07:14latest developments can only boost them.
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