French left-wing parties form 'Popular Front' to face far right in snap election

Political parties representing the French left-wing say they have reached an agreement to form a "Popular Front" to contest the snap parliamentary election at the end of the month.

The hard-left France Unbowed (LFI), Socialist, Communist and Green parties said in a joint statement on Thursday that they had agreed on a plan for how to form a government under the name of the "New Popular Front".

"We have succeeded. A page of history is being written," Socialist leader Olivier Faure said on X.

The alliance will present single candidates in each of France's 577 constituencies, and will publish details of its campaign programme later on Friday.

This united left-wing "Popular Front"  is set to go head-to-head against the far-right's National Rally (RN) – currently leading the polls for the parliamentary vote – while President Emmanuel Macron's camp is currently struggling to make headway against those two blocs.

"We now start our campaign – with the aim of winning!" said senior LFI lawmaker François Ruffin on X.

'Agreement of shame'

Prime Minister Gabriel Attal denounced the alliance.

"I am sorry to see that the Socialist Party, of which I was a member, is making an agreement of shame" with LFI and "putting itself in the wheel of communitarianism", he told journalists on Thursday.

The government has been particularly critical of some LFI heavyweights' refusal to call Hamas's 7 October assault on Israel a "terrorist" attack.

"The fact that there can be 'debates' on the characterisation of the attack committed by the Hamas terrorist group on 7 October must be a wake-up call", Attal wrote on X.

But former Socialist president François Hollande said he was in favour of uniting the left because he felt it was necessary to prevent the RN from coming to power.

"It's up to the left to do its duty. Its duty is to unite... to be able to bring together all the political families of the left who have differences ... but who are showing responsibility", he said in a TV interview on Thursday evening.

The alliance still has to decide on who will lead the group and become prime minister if it comes out on top. LFI's repeat presidential candidate Jean-Luc Mélénchon and Ruffin have thrown their hats in the ring.

Macron called for the snap election, to be held in two rounds on 30 June  and 7 July, after his centrist alliance was trounced by the RN in last Sunday's European Elections.

(with newswires)