Despite the defeat, the Socialists feel victorious in the French elections

Leftist Jean-Luc Mélenchon was on the verge of the second round of the presidential election, but his defeat added an air of victory as he confirmed himself as the only muscled leftist candidate in France.

This 70-year-old political veteran fights in his third and final battle for the Elysee His best result was 21.95% of the vote, behind centrist President Emmanuel Macron (27.85%) and far-right Marine Le Pen (23.15%).

And he affirmed his party’s weight in reshaping the political space that began in 2017 with the rise of Macron, overtaking the next candidate of an atomized left by more than 17 points.

“The fight goes on! To everyone who hasn’t heard it yet, we say: Here is the power‘ Mélenchon said Sunday night in a veiled attack on his ecological, socialist and communist rivals.

Despite the calls for unity, the left forces presented six candidates – half the candidates – including two Trotskyists. And no one took a step back when Mélenchon was already emerging as a “useful voice.”

“We have a feeling that voters expected a union of the left but they couldn’t do it because I don’t know why, because of their ego.Ségolène Royal, former socialist candidate for the 2012 presidential elections, assured this Monday on BFMTV.

Political scientist Jérôme Fourquet estimated in the newspaper Le Figaro that an “important moment” in the left’s election campaign was Royal’s “speaking out loud what everyone thought” was the left’s “useful vote”.

“Mélenchon managed to score points” by attracting communist and eco-conscious voters, as well as teetotalers, and “brought him very close to classification,” Brice Teinturier, also a political scientist at Ipsos, told AFP.

More than a third of voters between the ages of 18 and 24 voted for him, according to analysis by Harris Interactive and Ifop. The grandstand was initially located in the popular outskirts of Paris and much of the overseas territories.

“People wanted to vote massively for Jean-Luc Mélenchon, even young people from the suburbs who were voting for the first time‘ Fatouma, an 18-year-old student in Saint-Denis, north of the capital, told AFP.

The impossible union?

All eyes are now on the so-called “third round”, the general elections in June. The socialists have already called on communists and ecologists to unite the forces of the left, but without Mélenchon.

Despite the slump in the presidential elections (1.75%), the historic Socialist Party still has a strong structure: it heads 25 departments, five regions, big cities like Paris and has 25 deputies out of 577.

But his very existence is at stake. Ex-President François Hollande was already running before the vote for the “reconstruction of the left”. Ségolène Royal warned that in any case it was about rebuilding “another left”.

“The left must be rebuilt from the voters who voted (…) If the young people voted for Mélenchon, it is proof that there is a deep desire to change the model‘ added the former socialist minister.

But his pro-leave positions and criticism of the European Union (EU) separates Mélenchon from the PS and environmentalists. His critics also accuse him of complacency with radical Islam and a departure from the principle of classical secularism.

“It is not enough to invoke the union of the left. There must be a recognized leader and a truly shared program‘” emphasizes Tinturier.

Emmanuel Macron and Marine Le Pen entered the second round of the presidency due to a narrow difference in votes (Photo by Ludovic MARIN / AFP) – Photo: AFP

Will the leader of Francia Insumisa be able to lead this entity, which he failed to achieve in the 2017 general elections? ‘There is little chance that this will work,’ adds Professor Simon Persico of Sciences Po Grenoble.

The “useful voting logic” cannot be transferred to the legislature, the expert believes, but environmentalists, communists and socialists have a “less good negotiating position than before”.

Another question is the future of the “French Chávez,” as Le Figaro called him, and his successor at the head of the partyalthough, according to his campaign manager Manuel Bompard, “he will not retire from the fight tomorrow”.

Succession “is not the issue. It’s still there, it hasn’t gone, and it will be around in the political landscape for a while. I don’t think there will be another Mélenchon,” left-wing MP Clémentine Autin told Radio RMC.

*With information from AFP.